propagandahttp://www.desmogblog.com/taxonomy/term/430/all
enCenter for Public Integrity Reveals How PR Firms Manufacture Consent for Oil, Big Businesshttp://www.desmogblog.com/2015/01/15/center-public-integrity-reveals-how-pr-firms-manufacture-consent-oil-big-business
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/shutterstock_196140803.jpg?itok=o8noswKV" width="200" height="160" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The Center for Public Integrity has broken new ground by <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/01/15/16596/who-needs-lobbyists-see-what-big-business-spends-win-american-minds#!1">publishing a months-long investigation</a> into the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Public_relations">public relations</a> and influence-peddling spending conducted by Big Business trade associations between 2008-2012.</p>
<p>That investigation highlights spending for trade associations ranging from the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/643">American Petroleum Institute</a>, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/1922">National Mining Association</a>, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/1229">Edison Electric Institute</a>, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/12654">America's Natural Gas Association</a> and many others not in the oil, gas and coal industry. The energy industrial complex, though, by far spent the most on public relations according to the Center.</p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Screen%20Shot%202015-01-15%20at%203.39.14%20PM.png" style="width: 500px; height: 205px;" /></p>
<p><span style="font-size:11px;"><em>Image Credit: <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/01/15/16596/who-needs-lobbyists-see-what-big-business-spends-win-american-minds#!1">Center for Public Integrity</a></em></span></p>
<p><span class="caps">API</span> by far spent the most money on public relations according to the Center's analysis, which explained its <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/01/14/16606/methodology">research methodology as a side-bar to the story</a>.</p>
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<p><img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Screen%20Shot%202015-01-15%20at%203.39.34%20PM.png" style="width: 560px; height: 222px;" /></p>
<p><em style="font-size: 11px; letter-spacing: 0.389999985694885px;">Image Credit: <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/01/15/16596/who-needs-lobbyists-see-what-big-business-spends-win-american-minds#!1">Center for Public Integrity</a></em></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The methodology involved digging into Internal Revenue Service 990 forms, which list the top five contractors paid by trade associations, as long as the payments total more than $100,000. The Center explained that because some trade associations often leave descriptions vague in terms of what the money went toward, it made tracking the data all the more difficult. </span></p>
<p>“[T]rade groups often vaguely describe the services their top contractors provide as 'professional fees' or 'consulting,'” <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/01/15/16596/who-needs-lobbyists-see-what-big-business-spends-win-american-minds#!1">they wrote</a>. “Because many firms offer a wide range of services, it’s often unclear exactly what kind of work was done on the industry associations’ behalf.”</p>
<h3>
Public Relations Over Lobbying</h3>
<p>The Center's investigation focuses in particular on the fact that public relations efforts now trump lobbying efforts in terms of at-large spending for major trade associations. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Screen%20Shot%202015-01-15%20at%203.05.27%20PM.png"><img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Screen%20Shot%202015-01-15%20at%203.05.27%20PM.png" style="width: 560px; height: 281px;" /></a></p>
<p><em style="font-size: 11px; letter-spacing: 0.389999985694885px;">Image Credit: <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/01/15/16596/who-needs-lobbyists-see-what-big-business-spends-win-american-minds#!1">Center for Public Integrity</a></em></p>
<p>Why more spending on <span class="caps">PR</span> and advertising and less on lobbying? Because “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent">manufacturing consent</a>” of the public, to use the namesake of the 1988 book by scholar Noam Chomsky, matters and it works. <a href="https://twitter.com/steve_j_barrett">Steve Barrett</a>, editor-in-chief of the <span class="caps">PR</span> industry trade publication <a href="http://www.prweek.com/us"><span class="caps">PR</span> Week</a>, agrees. </p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>They certainly want to influence the general public,” <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/01/15/16596/who-needs-lobbyists-see-what-big-business-spends-win-american-minds#!1">Barrett told the Center</a>, “because the general public will then influence the politicians, the lawmakers or the regulators in that particular industry.”</p>
<p>The investigation comes just two months after <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/11/19/natural-gas-exports-washington-revolving-door-fuels-climate-threat">DeSmogBlog</a> and <a href="http://www.republicreport.org/2014/natural-gas-exports-introduction/">Republic Report</a> jointly released the first installment of an ongoing investigation exposing the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Government-industry_revolving_door">government-industry revolving door</a> and influence-peddling peddling machine going to bat on behalf of fracked gas exports.</p>
<h3>
Edelman Takes the Cake</h3>
<p>According to the Center's investigation, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Edelman">Edelman</a> has gobbled up lucrative trade association contracts more than anyone else in terms of dollar amounts. This is something <a href="http://www.climateinvestigations.org/who_we_are">Kert Davies, head of the Climate Investigations Center</a> and <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/news-and-blogs/campaign-blog/Kert-Davies/">former head of research at Greenpeace <span class="caps">USA</span></a>, pointed out in an article explaining the importance of the Center's work. </p>
<p>“The Edelman - <span class="caps">API</span> relationship accounted for over a quarter of all spending compiled by <span class="caps">CPI</span> and Edelman received a grand total of $347 million (2008-2012) from all its various trade association contracts,” <a href="http://www.climateinvestigations.org/big_oil_paid_edelman_fleishmanhillard_over_400_million_since_2008">wrote Davies</a>.</p>
<p>“The <span class="caps">CPI</span> report's revelations are striking, even for jaded climate/clean energy advocates. We knew Edelman was getting a lot of oil money from <span class="caps">API</span> and from various oil companies like Exxon and TransCanada, but its really a <span class="caps">LOT</span> of money, ranging from $33 to $75 million per year from American Petroleum Institute alone since 2008. Again, adding 2013 to the <span class="caps">CPI</span> compiled data, <span class="caps">API</span> has paid Edelman over $360 Million (2008-2013).”</p>
<p>Davies also unpacked far more about the history of the relationship between Edelman and <span class="caps">API</span>, also noting the crucial role played by mega-firm <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Fleishman-Hillard">FleishmanHillard</a>. </p>
<p>Center for Public Integrity's long-form investigation <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/01/15/16595/industry-s-top-message-peddlers#!0">digs into far more than just the energy industry influence-peddling machine</a> and is <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/01/15/16596/who-needs-lobbyists-see-what-big-business-spends-win-american-minds#!1">worth reading in full</a>. </p>
<p><span style="font-size:11px;"><em>Photo Credit: <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-787933p1.html">Khakimullin Aleksandr</a> | <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-196140803/stock-photo-image-of-a-two-puppet-businessman-standing-on-against-each-other-concept-of-business-control.html?src=&amp;ws=1">Shutterstock</a></em></span></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4433">Center for Public Integrity</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19528">manufacturing consent</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/18043">PR Week</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19529">Steve Barrett</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9525">Edelman</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9098">Kert Davies</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7407">Greenpeace USA</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19523">Climate Investigations Center</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19530">990 Forms</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/926">irs</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19531">Internal Revenue Service 990 Forms</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8948">Internal Revenue Service</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19532">IRS 990 Forms</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19524">Trade Associations</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19533">FleishmanHillard</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19525">Erin Quinn</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19526">Chris Young</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19527">Influence Industry</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/propaganda">propaganda</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/public-relations">Public Relations</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5086">PR</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7310">Government Relations</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4499">API</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/643">American Petroleum Institute</a></div></div></div>Fri, 16 Jan 2015 00:45:11 +0000Steve Horn8991 at http://www.desmogblog.comLike Canada's Harper Government, Obama Administration Muzzling Its Scientistshttp://www.desmogblog.com/2014/12/09/like-canada-harper-government-obama-administration-muzzling-scientists
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/shutterstock_221215255.jpg?itok=POMCsUyb" width="200" height="133" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>In recent years, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has <a href="http://www.desmog.ca/2014/06/02/top-10-quotes-canada-s-muzzled-scientists">come under fire</a> for <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119153/canadas-stephen-harper-government-muzzles-climate-scientists">disallowing scientists working for the Canadian government to speak directly to the press</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119153/canadas-stephen-harper-government-muzzles-climate-scientists">An article published in August by The New Republic</a> said “Harper's antagonism toward climate-change experts in his government may sound familiar to Americans,” pointing to similar deeds done by the George W. Bush Administration. <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119153/canadas-stephen-harper-government-muzzles-climate-scientists">That article also said</a> that “Bush's replacement,” President Barack Obama, “has reversed course” in this area.</p>
<p>Society for Professional Journalists, the largest trade association for professional journalists in the U.S., disagrees with this conclusion. </p>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.spj.org/pdf/letter/epa-letter-12-01-2014.pdf">December 1 letter written to Gina McCarthy</a>, administrator for the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> Environmental Protection Agency (<span class="caps">EPA</span>), the society chided the Obama administration for its methods of responding to journalists' queries to speak to <span class="caps">EPA</span>-associated scientists. </p>
<p>“We write to urge you again to clarify that members of the <span class="caps">EPA</span> Science Advisory Board (<span class="caps">SAB</span>) and the twenty other <span class="caps">EPA</span> science advisory committees have the right and are encouraged to speak to the public and the press about any scientific issues, including those before these committees, in a personal capacity without prior authorization from the agency,” <a href="http://www.spj.org/pdf/letter/epa-letter-12-01-2014.pdf">said the letter</a>.</p>
<p>“We urge you…to ensure that <span class="caps">EPA</span> advisory committee members are encouraged share their expertise and opinions with those who would benefit from it.”</p>
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<h3>
Press <span class="caps">NGO</span>s: Muzzling Policy Impacts</h3>
<p>Harper maintains similar procedures, with <a href="http://www.canada.com/technology/Climate+change+scientists+feel+muzzled+Ottawa+Documents/2684065/story.html">scientists unable to speak directly to the press without prior authorization</a> from public relations higher-ups.</p>
<p>Unlike the Harper rules, <a href="http://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabpeople.nsf/WebExternalCommitteeRosters?OpenView&amp;committee=BOARD&amp;secondname=Science%20Advisory%20Board"><span class="caps">EPA</span> Science Advisory Board members</a> do not work directly for the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> government. Instead, they serve as advisors for <span class="caps">U.S.</span> environmental policy, but almost all members work full-time at <span class="caps">U.S.</span> universities, corporations or environmental groups. </p>
<p>Critics say muzzling of these scientists matters because they make policy decisions with real-world impacts on society.</p>
<p>“Federal advisory committees are generally composed of experts outside the federal government who provide advice to policymakers on a broad range of issues,” the Society for Professional Journalists, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Society of Environmental Journalists and others <a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/legacy/assets/documents/center-for-science-and-democracy/epa-sab-letter-8-12-14.pdf">wrote in an earlier August letter</a>.</p>
<p>“Very often, their advice carries great weight and is reflected in final rules, especially when statutes require that regulations be developed based solely on the best available science.”</p>
<h3>
Muzzling Fits into Broader Trends</h3>
<p>Due to National Security Administration (<span class="caps">NSA</span>) surveillance of electronic communications and the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Department_of_Justice_investigations_of_reporters#Associated_Press">Department of Justice subpoenaing phone records of the Associated Press'</a> newsroom, the Committee to Protect Journalists — which generally only covers the media of other countries — wrote an <a href="http://www.cpj.org/reports/2013/10/obama-and-the-press-us-leaks-surveillance-post-911.php">October 2013 report about Obama's press treatment</a>.</p>
<p>The committee's report concludes that the <span class="caps">AP</span> subpoena and <span class="caps">NSA</span> electronic surveillance has gone a step further than the <span class="caps">EPA</span>'s procedure to route journalists to <span class="caps">PR</span> spokespeople<span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> for comment. That is, they also want to control and know who journalists are talking to off-the-record or confidentially, which the report concludes has had a </span><a href="https://cpj.org/blog/2013/06/secrecy-scale-of-prism-raises-alarms.php" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">chilling effect for both sources and reporters</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></p>
<p>“I worry now about calling somebody because the contact can be found out through a check of phone records or e-mails,” <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/authors/r-jeffrey-smith">R. Jeffrey Smith</a>, a reporter for the Center for Public Integrity, said in a <a href="http://www.cpj.org/reports/2013/10/obama-and-the-press-us-leaks-surveillance-post-911.php">statement to the Committee to Protect Journalists</a>. “It leaves a digital trail that makes it easier for the government to monitor those contacts.”</p>
<p>Due to the report's findings and other related issues, investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill has said on multiple occasions that the <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2013/12/5/there_is_a_war_on_journalism">Obama Administration has launched a “war on journalism.”</a></p>
<h3>
Stop Spin, Let Sunshine In </h3>
<p>A July letter written by many free press and open government organizations called on the Obama Administration “<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px; letter-spacing: 0.390000015497208px; line-height: 1.5em;">to stop the spin and let the sunshine in.”</span><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p>“You recently expressed concern that frustration in the country is breeding cynicism about democratic government,” <a href="http://www.spj.org/news.asp?ref=1253">they wrote</a>. <span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">“You need look no further than your own administration for a major source of that frustration – politically driven suppression of news and information about federal agencies. We call on you to take a stand to stop the spin and let the sunshine in.”</span></p>
<p>These groups also demanded the Obama administration reverse course and issue a new, press-friendly policy.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">“We ask that you issue a clear directive telling federal employees they’re not only free to answer questions from reporters and the public, but actually encouraged to do so,” <a href="http://www.spj.org/news.asp?ref=1253">they continued</a>. “We believe that is one of the most important things you can do for the nation now, before the policies become even more entrenched.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">To date, there is little indication a policy shift from Obama is in order in this sphere, though.</span></p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://photos.state.gov/libraries/canada/303578/canada-us/obama_harper_feb2009.jpg" style="width: 300px; height: 200px;" /></p>
<p><span style="font-size:11px;">Photo Credit: <a href="http://canada.usembassy.gov/canada-us-relations/presidential-meetings-with-canadian-prime-ministers/obama-harper.html"><em><span class="caps">U.S.</span> Department of State</em></a></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">So for now, not only do Canada and the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> have a shared bond in that <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/236674-the-real-legacy-of-the-keystone-xl-is-already-settled">record amounts of Alberta's tar sands now flow into the U.S, </a>but also that the muzzling of scientists, and by extension</span><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> the press at-large, </span><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">is a threat to democracy in both countries. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:11px;"><em>Photo Credit: <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-1378012p1.html">Vladimir Gjorgiev</a> | <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&amp;language=en&amp;ref_site=photo&amp;search_source=search_form&amp;version=llv1&amp;anyorall=all&amp;safesearch=1&amp;use_local_boost=1&amp;search_tracking_id=x8SLZEjYEdszjCMFgEPZhw&amp;searchterm=tape%20over%20mouth&amp;show_color_wheel=1&amp;orient=&amp;commercial_ok=&amp;media_type=images&amp;search_cat=&amp;searchtermx=&amp;photographer_name=&amp;people_gender=&amp;people_age=&amp;people_ethnicity=&amp;people_number=&amp;color=&amp;page=1&amp;inline=221215255">Shutterstock</a></em></span></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/3844">Obama administration</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7735">Jeremy Scahill</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19248">Good Government Organizations</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4433">Center for Public Integrity</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19249">Leonard Downie</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19250">R. Jeffrey Smith</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19246">RCFP</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19247">Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1975">society of environmental journalists</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2102">SEJ</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5086">PR</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/public-relations">Public Relations</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/propaganda">propaganda</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12246">Gina McCarthy</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/epa">EPA</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1471">Environmental Protection Agency</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19238">George W. Bush Administration</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19239">The New Republic</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8119">Harper Government</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1115">Stephen Harper</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/canada">canada</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19245">EPA Science Advisory Board</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2632">tar sands</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/oil-sands">oil sands</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2702">obama</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19240">Society of Professional Journalists</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19241">SPJ</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19242">Obama Muzzling Scientists</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19243">Harper Muzzling Scientists</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19244">Canada Muzzling Scientists</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/939">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5016">climate disruption</a></div></div></div>Wed, 10 Dec 2014 05:20:56 +0000Steve Horn8886 at http://www.desmogblog.comMeeting Logs: Obama White House Quietly Coddling Big Oil on “Bomb Trains” Regulationshttp://www.desmogblog.com/2014/06/15/obama-white-house-agency-quietly-coddling-big-oil-bomb-trains-regulations
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/Bomb%20Train%20Lynchburg_0.jpg?itok=jpizdIPW" width="200" height="150" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>When <a href="https://its.law.nyu.edu/facultyprofiles/profile.cfm?section=bio&amp;personID=20228">Richard Revesz, Dean Emeritus of New York University Law School</a>, introduced <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg_administrator">Howard Shelanski</a> at his <a href="http://www.law.nyu.edu/news/IPI-Workshop-2013">only public appearance so far</a> during his tenure as Administrator of the White House <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg_default">Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (<span class="caps">OIRA</span>)</a>, Revesz described Shelanski as, “from our perspective, close to the most important official in the federal government.”</p>
<p><span class="caps">OIRA</span> has <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/25/usa-railroads-oil-idUSL2N0NH13M20140425">recently reared its head in a big way</a> because it is currently reviewing the <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/viewEO12866Meeting?viewRule=false&amp;rin=2137-AE91&amp;meetingId=156&amp;acronym=2137-DOT/PHMSA">newly-proposed oil-by-rail safety regulations</a> rolled out by the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/14688">Department of Transportation (<span class="caps">DOT</span>)</a> and <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/6799">Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (<span class="caps">PHMSA</span>)</a>. </p>
<p>During his presentation at <span class="caps">NYU</span>, Shelanski spoke at length about how <span class="caps">OIRA</span> must use “cost-benefit analysis” with regards to regulations, stating, “Cost-benefit analysis is an essential tool for regulatory policy.”</p>
<p>But during his <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/washingtonbureau/2013/06/12/howard-shelanskis-smart-but-does-he.html?page=all">confirmation hearings</a>, Shelanski made sure to state his position on how cost-benefit analysis should be used in practice. Shelanski let corporate interests know he was well aware of their position on the cost of regulations and what they stood to lose from stringent regulations. </p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>Regulatory objectives should be achieved at no higher cost than is absolutely necessary,” <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/washingtonbureau/2013/06/12/howard-shelanskis-smart-but-does-he.html?page=all">Shelanski said at the hearing</a>.</p>
<p><!--break--></p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/howard%20shelanski.png" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em; width: 175px; height: 251px;" /><br /><em style="font-size: 11px;">Howard Shelanski; Photo Credit: <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg_administrator">White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs</a></em><br /><br />
With the “cost-benefit analysis” regarding environmental and safety issues for oil-by-rail in <span class="caps">OIRA</span>’s hands, it appears both the oil and rail industries will have their voices heard loudly and clearly by the White House. </p>
<p>A DeSmogBlog review of <span class="caps">OIRA</span> meeting logs confirms that in recent weeks, <span class="caps">OIRA</span> has held at least ten meetings with officials from both industries on oil-by-rail regulations. On the flip side, it held no meetings with public interest groups.</p>
<h3>
<span class="dquo">“</span>Cost-Benefit”: A Brief History</h3>
<p><span class="caps">OIRA</span> was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Information_and_Regulatory_Affairs">created in 1980</a> by President Ronald Reagan with the <a href="http://www.progressivereform.org/OMBrole.cfm">goal of getting rid of “intrusive” regulations</a>.</p>
<p>“By instructing agencies to clear drafts of regulations through <span class="caps">OIRA</span>, Presidents have made the agency…a virtual choke point for federal regulation,” <a href="http://www.progressivereform.org/OMBrole.cfm">explains</a> the <a href="http://www.progressivereform.org">Center for Progressive Reform</a>, a think-tank <a href="http://www.progressivereform.org/eyeonoira.cfm">critical of <span class="caps">OIRA</span></a> and its <a href="http://www.progressivereform.org/costBenefit.cfm">cost-benefit analysis</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2009/01/17/172552/close-look-sunstein/">Cost-benefit analysis was put on the map</a> by <a href="http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/10871/Sunstein/bibliography">Harvard Law School professor Cass Sunstein</a>, “regulatory czar” and head of <span class="caps">OIRA</span> for President Barack Obama before Shelanski. </p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The ideology, which is </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">embraced by President Obama,</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> is </span><font style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB123138051682263203">inspired by the “Chicago School” of free market economics</a>, unpacked in depth in <a href="http://www.naomiklein.org/main">Naomi Klein</a>’s book, “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_Doctrine">The Shock Doc</a></span></font><font style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_Doctrine">trine</a>.</span></font><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">”</span></p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>He's a University of Chicago Democrat, so he's very attuned to the virtue of free markets and the risks of free-market regulation,” <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB123138051682263203">Sunstein told The Wall Street Journal about Obama in 2009</a>. “He's not an old-style Democrat who's excited about regulations.”</p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Cass%20Sunstein.jpg" style="width: 175px; height: 146px;" /><br /><em style="font-size: 11px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Cass Sunstein; Photo Credit: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cass_Sunstein#mediaviewer/File:Cass_Sunstein_(2008).jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></em></p>
<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/cass-sunstein-top-obama-adviser-on-regulations-to-leave-administration/2012/08/03/5652b6fc-dd6a-11e1-8e43-4a3c4375504a_story.html">The Washington Post described Sunstein</a> as Obama’s “intellectual mentor” who “had a major influence on Obama’s view of government — stressing pragmatism over ideology.”</p>
<p>But of course, the “Chicago School” has its own ideological roots: <a href="http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=376">neoliberalism</a>. </p>
<h3>
Big Oil Meet and Greet </h3>
<p>The first on-the-books meeting <span class="caps">OIRA</span> held in the second quarter of 2014 about the <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/viewEO12866Meeting?viewRule=false&amp;rin=2137-AE91&amp;meetingId=156&amp;acronym=2137-DOT/PHMSA">newly-proposed oil-by-rail safety regulations</a> written by the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> Department of Transportation (<span class="caps">DOT</span>) was <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/viewEO12866Meeting?viewRule=false&amp;rin=2137-AE91&amp;meetingId=156&amp;acronym=2137-DOT/PHMSA">with lobbyists, economists and attorneys representing both the American Petroleum Institute (<span class="caps">API</span>) and Chevron</a> on May 19.</p>
<p>Attendees of that meeting included <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/misty-mcgowen/64/683/331">Misty McGowen</a>, Director of Federal Relations for <span class="caps">API</span> and <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/michael-yoham/12/137/993">Michael Yoham</a>, Manager Rail Transportation Services for Chevron.</p>
<p>This <span class="caps">API</span>-Chevron White House visit parallels the one they made together when <span class="caps">OIRA</span> mulled over new rules on sulfur in gasoline. <span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">In 2012, a group led by </span><a href="http://www.eenews.net/stories/1059970724" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="caps">API</span> president Jack Gerard</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> went to the White House to discuss this issue with another of President Obama’s closest advisers, </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Jarrett" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Valerie Jarrett</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></p>
<p>This visit clearly paid dividends for the industry when the new regulations were delayed.</p>
<p>Akin to what is currently happening with the oil-by-rail regulations regarding Bakken shale oil and the <span class="caps">DOT</span>-111 tank cars, it was coordinated with a <a href="http://www.autonews.com/article/20121217/OEM01/312179948/auto-oil-execs-open-round-2-of-sulfur-spat%23">big public relations push</a> trashing the regulations as unnecessary. </p>
<p>History, as they say, has repeated itself in the oil-by-rail sphere.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.manufacturing.net/news/2014/05/industry-says-bakken-oil-not-more-risky-than-others">A new report</a> touting the safety of oil obtained from <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/fracking-the-future/">hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”)</a> in the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/7174">Bakken Shale</a> was released by industry groups the same week as the <span class="caps">API</span>-Chevron visit with <span class="caps">OIRA</span>.</p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/shutterstock_182367542.jpg" style="width: 350px; height: 350px;" /><br /><em style="font-size: 11px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Image Credit: <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-182367542/stock-photo-hydraulic-fracturing-is-the-fracturing-of-rock-by-a-pressurized-liquid.html?src=4DfVCV3YtnxMMYM6q1foLQ-1-0">Shutterstock</a> | <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-1479299p1.html">Trueffelpix</a></em></p>
<p>Less than two weeks later on May 30, <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/viewEO12866Meeting?viewRule=false&amp;rin=2137-AE91&amp;meetingId=183&amp;acronym=2137-DOT/PHMSA"><span class="caps">OIRA</span> met with representatives</a> from the <a href="http://www.afpm.org/">American Fuel <span class="amp">&amp;</span> Petrochemical Manufacturers</a> (<span class="caps">AFPM</span>) and Tesoro, among others. <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_summary.php?id=20869">Stephen H. Brown</a>, a Tesoro lobbyist, represented the company — which has a <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/11/tesoro-rail-crude-idUSL2N0H70U420130911">multi-pronged oil-by-rail footprint</a> — at the meeting. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/regulatory/refiners-lobby-says-dot-111-is-fine%25E2%2580%259D-for-shipping-bakken-crude.html"><span class="caps">AFPM</span> has also gone on the record saying Bakken fracked oil is safe for railway transportation</a>, also concluding <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOT-111_tank_car"><span class="caps">DOT</span>-111 tank cars</a> are “fine” for moving Bakken crude to market. </p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>Can we have an intellectually honest discussion about mechanical and track integrity on the rails?,” <a href="http://www.afpm.org/staff/"><span class="caps">AFPM</span> president Charles Drevna</a> asked rhetorically in a <a href="http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/regulatory/refiners-lobby-says-dot-111-is-fine%25E2%2580%259D-for-shipping-bakken-crude.html">May 19 Railway Age article</a>. “You shouldn’t blame the cargo for an accident.”</p>
<p>Other Big Oil companies that got the ear of <span class="caps">OIRA</span> in June included <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/viewEO12866Meeting?viewRule=false&amp;rin=2137-AE91&amp;meetingId=185&amp;acronym=2137-DOT/PHMSA">Phillips 66</a> (purchased as a wholly-owned subsidiary <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2001/11/19/deals/phillips_conoco/">by ConocoPhillips in 2001</a>) and <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/viewEO12866Meeting?viewRule=false&amp;rin=2137-AE91&amp;meetingId=210&amp;acronym=2137-DOT/PHMSA">ExxonMobil</a>.</p>
<h3>
<span class="caps">BNSF</span> Lands Two Meetings in One Week</h3>
<p>Records also reveal <span class="caps">OIRA</span> met twice in one week with <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/8243">Burlington Northern Sante Fe</a> (<a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/8244"><span class="caps">BNSF</span></a>), the oil-by-rail behemoth owned by <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/7461">Warren Buffett</a>. The first was held on <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/viewEO12866Meeting?viewRule=false&amp;rin=2137-AE91&amp;meetingId=209&amp;acronym=2137-DOT/PHMSA">June 3</a> and the second on <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/viewEO12866Meeting?viewRule=false&amp;rin=2137-AE91&amp;meetingId=207&amp;acronym=2137-DOT/PHMSA">June 6</a>. </p>
<p>Buffett was a major donor to President Obama for both the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/19/warren-buffet-backs-obama_n_102451.html">2008</a> and <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/04/barack-obama-warren-buffett-campaign-cash">2012</a> presidential elections. He also gave big money to Hillary Clinton — former Secretary of State for the Obama Administration and likely presidential candidate in 2016 — <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/09/warren-buffett-to-headlin_n_76000.html">during the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries</a>, and has <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/268019-warren-buffett-endorses-hillary-clinton-for-2016">already endorsed her for 2016</a>.</p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Warren%20Buffett%20Barack%20Obama.jpg" style="width: 275px; height: 183px;" /><br /><em style="font-size: 11px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Warren Buffett (L), President Barack Obama (R); Photo Credit: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Buffett#mediaviewer/File:Buffett_%26_Obama.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></em></p>
<p><span class="caps">BNSF</span> Executive Chairman Matthew Rose came to the June 3 meeting flanked by two <span class="caps">BNSF</span> lobbyists: <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_summary.php?id=16836">Amy Hawkins</a> and <a href="http://disclosures.house.gov/ld/ldxmlrelease/2014/Q1/300646138.xml">Cliff Rothenstein</a> (who maintains <span class="caps">BNSF</span> as a client on behalf of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%2526L_Gates"><span class="caps">K&amp;L</span> Gates</a>). Some <a href="http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/blogs/william-vantuono/will-matt-rose-succeed-warren-buffett-at-berkshire-hathaway.html">speculate Rose could succeed Buffett as <span class="caps">CEO</span></a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkshire_Hathaway">Berkshire Hathaway</a>, the holding company that <a href="http://www.bnsf.com/media/news-releases/2009/november/2009-11-03a.html">bought <span class="caps">BNSF</span> in 2009</a>.</p>
<p>On June 6, <a href="http://www.bnsf.com/about-bnsf/our-people/our-officers/">Roger Nober</a>, <span class="caps">BNSF</span> Executive Vice President for Law and Corporate Affairs, <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/viewEO12866Meeting?viewRule=false&amp;rin=2137-AE91&amp;meetingId=207&amp;acronym=2137-DOT/PHMSA">landed a one-on-one meeting with Shelanski</a>. Before working for <span class="caps">BNSF</span>, Nober passed through the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Government-industry_revolving_door">government-industry revolving door</a>, serving as an <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/roger-nober/5/a38/82a">attorney for the Department of Transportation</a>.</p>
<p>According to an <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/RailgiantgoesoneononewithWhiteHouseovertankcarrules.pdf">article published in EnergyWire</a>, <span class="caps">BNSF</span> supports an “aggressive phase out” of its <span class="caps">DOT</span>­-111 tank cars. </p>
<p>”[<span class="caps">BNSF</span>] believe[s] the next ­generation tank cars should exceed the 2011, stronger new standard known as the <span class="caps">CPC</span>­-1232 tank car,” <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/roxanne-butler/14/448/55b">Roxanne Butler</a>, a spokeswoman for <span class="caps">BNSF</span> told EnergyWire. </p>
<p>Butler did not respond to questions from DeSmogBlog about what <span class="caps">BNSF</span> discussed with <span class="caps">OIRA</span> in the meetings, nor did she specify what she meant by an “aggressive phase out.”</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/16160"><span class="caps">CSX</span> Corporation</a> oil-by-rail <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/04/30/breaking-csx-railroad-bomb-train-carrying-crude-oil-explodes-lynchburg-virginia">train that exploded in Lynchburg, Virginia in late-April</a>, though, <a href="http://dot111.info/2014/05/15/secretary-of-transportation-anthony-foxx-lynchburg-had-upgraded-tank-car/">had <span class="caps">CPC</span>-1232 “next ­generation tank cars.”</a></p>
<p>On the May 14 edition of The Rachel Maddow Show, Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx told Maddow that <a href="http://dot111.info/2014/05/15/secretary-of-transportation-anthony-foxx-lynchburg-had-upgraded-tank-car/">he does not believe the <span class="caps">CPC</span>-1232 is the solution</a>.</p>
<p><object height="315" width="560"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/wb0xHq6fDHM?version=3&amp;hl=en_US" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/v/wb0xHq6fDHM?version=3&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560"></embed></object><br /><em style="font-size: 11px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx interview with Rachel Maddow, via <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb0xHq6fDHM">YouTube</a>.</em></p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>I can tell you that I don’t have confidence in the <span class="caps">DOT</span>-111 [and] I’m unconvinced that the 1232 — which is the upgraded car — is the absolute solution,” said Foxx. “I think there’s going to have to be a new type of tank car established to keep this country as safe as possible.”</p>
<h3>
Oil Exports Connection</h3>
<p>For its <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/viewEO12866Meeting?viewRule=false&amp;rin=2137-AE91&amp;meetingId=205&amp;acronym=2137-DOT/PHMSA">first oil-by-rail meeting of June</a>, <span class="caps">DOT</span> officials and <span class="caps">OIRA</span> officials sat alongside <a href="http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/quantum-energy-announces-refinery-progress-audit-sec-reporting-bakken-rail-safety-land-pinksheets-qegy-1911842.htm">Russell Smith</a>, lobbyist for oil and gas industry capital investment firm <a href="http://www.quantumep.com/">Quantum Energy</a>; <span class="caps">FTI</span> Consulting lobbyist <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/john-cline/3/a76/190">John Cline</a>; and <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/john-whitcomb/73/467/971">John Whitcomb</a>, legislative analyst for <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/10561"><span class="caps">FTI</span> Consulting</a>.</p>
<p>Cline formerly headed up <a href="http://www.thec2group.com/">C2 Group</a>, a Washington, <span class="caps">DC</span>-based lobbying group purchased in March 2013 as a wholly-owned <a href="http://www.thec2group.com/news/fti_acquires_c2_group/">subsidiary of <span class="caps">FTI</span> Consulting</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thec2group.com/portfolio"><span class="caps">BNSF</span> is one of C2 Group's clients</a>. </p>
<p>As his <span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">C2 Group </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">biography explains, Cline has also passed through the revolving door, formerly working for both the White House and <span class="caps">DOT</span>. </span></p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>John served in the White House as a Special Assistant for Intergovernmental Affairs under President George <span class="caps">H.W.</span> Bush,” <a href="http://www.thec2group.com/meet-the-group/john_cline/">Cline's bio states</a>.</p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>Prior to his service in the White House, he was Director of the Office of Congressional Affairs for the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> Department of Transportation (<span class="caps">DOT</span>)… John entered public service in 1989 upon his selection by President Bush as Associate Administrator for the Federal Transit Administration at <span class="caps">DOT</span>.”</p>
<p><span class="caps">FTI</span> — <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/12/11921/%25E2%2580%259Cenergy-depth%25E2%2580%259D-%25E2%2580%2593-reporters%25E2%2580%2599-guide-its-founding-funding-and-flacks">overseer of public relations efforts</a> for fracking front group <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/5976">Energy in Depth</a> — published a <a href="http://www.fticonsulting.com/global2/media/collateral/united-states/age-of-abundance-the-legal-and-political-implications-of-crude-oil-exports.pdf">report promoting oil exports in June 2013</a>. </p>
<p>Many prospective coastal crude oil export terminals rely on oil-by-rail to move product to the coast.</p>
<p>For example, the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/04/30/breaking-csx-railroad-bomb-train-carrying-crude-oil-explodes-lynchburg-virginia">exploding <span class="caps">CSX</span> Corporation oil-by-rail train in Lynchburg, Virginia</a> owned by <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/16172">Plains All American</a> was <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/04/30/explosive-virginia-train-carried-fracked-bakken-oil-headed-to-potential-export-facility">on its way to the Yorktown facility</a>. Yorktown has been <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/04/30/explosive-virginia-train-carried-fracked-bakken-oil-headed-to-potential-export-facility">marked a potential export terminal</a> if the ban on exporting <span class="caps">U.S.</span> oil is lifted. </p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Yorktown%20Facility%20Oil-By-Rail%20Map.png" style="width: 450px; height: 351px;" /></p>
<p><span style="font-size:11px;"><em>Map Credit: <a href="http://www.csxcrudebyrail.com/index.cfm/resources/crude-oil-network-map/"><span class="caps">CSX</span> Corporation</a></em></span></p>
<h3>
Cui Bono?</h3>
<p>While Shelanski’s remarks at <span class="caps">NYU</span> discussed cost-benefit analysis, he also talked about how the question over regulatory policy often boils down to shifting costs. </p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>A more honest debate and better policy will emerge if the debate acknowledges the difference between creating costs and shifting costs back to their source to reduce harmful externalities,” he said. </p>
<p>Which raises the big questions on oil-by-rail regulations, or lack thereof: cui bono? And who pays the costs?</p>
<p>A case in point is Lac-Mégantic, Quebec — site of the massive “<a href="https://www.facebook.com/BombTrains">bomb train</a>” explosion which <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lac-M%25C3%25A9gantic_derailment">killed 47 people on July 6, 2013 </a>— where the cost to clean up and rebuild the town is <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/04/17/3427767/crude-oil-resurfaces-lac-megantic/">estimated at $2.7 billion</a>.</p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Lac%20megantic%20explosion.jpg" style="width: 350px; height: 263px;" /><br /><em style="font-size: 11px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Lac-Mégantic Disaster; Photo Credit: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lac-M%C3%A9gantic_derailment#mediaviewer/File:Lac_megantic_burning.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></em></p>
<p>With all <a href="http://desmogblog.com/2014/05/26/should-ceos-get-jail-time-oil-rail-accidents-lac-megantic">six of the oil and rail companies involved refusing to pick up the tab</a>, the cost has been transferred to taxpayers from the oil and rail industries. </p>
<p>Exactly what <span class="caps">API</span>, Chevron, ExxonMobil, <span class="caps">BNSF</span> and other powerful factions discussed in their meetings with <span class="caps">OIRA</span> remains unknown for now. </p>
<p>But one thing remains clear: the only side <span class="caps">OIRA</span> has listened to so far in official meetings is Big Oil and Big Rail.</p>
<p>This is consistent with the trend-lines unpacked in the Center for Progressive Reform's study titled, “<a href="http://www.progressivereform.org/articles/OIRA_Meetings_1111.pdf">Behind Closed Doors at the White House</a>,” a comprensive review of <span class="caps">OIRA</span> meeting logs between 2001-2011. </p>
<p>“Over the last decade, 65 percent of the 5,759 meeting participants who met with <span class="caps">OIRA</span> represented regulated industry interests — about five times the number of people appearing on behalf of public interest groups,” <a href="http://www.progressivereform.org/articles/OIRA_Meetings_1111.pdf">stated the report</a>.</p>
<p>“[E]ven under this ostensibly transformative President [Obama]…industry visits outnumbered public interest visits by a ratio of almost four to one.” </p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/University%20of%20OIRA%20Meetings%20with%20Stakeholders%202001-2011.png" style="width: 450px; height: 227px;" /><br /><em style="font-size: 11px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Table Credit: <a href="http://www.progressivereform.org/articles/OIRA_Meetings_1111.pdf">Center for Progressive Reform</a></em></p>
<p>As the old adage goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. </p>
<p>“The oil-by-rail situations illustrates the way that the process is, all too often, stacked in favor of industry,” <a href="https://www.law.berkeley.edu/php-programs/faculty/facultyProfile.php?facID=1141">Daniel A. Farber</a>, professor at University of California Law School, <a href="http://www.progressivereform.org/FarberDanielBio.cfm">scholar for the Center for Progressive Reform</a> and <a href="http://progressivereform.org/CPRBlog.cfm?idBlog=8C1FB26B-AC8B-08E7-894D468085A0F4AF">critic of <span class="caps">OIRA</span>'s version of cost-benefit analysis</a>, told DeSmogBlog.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16863">OIRA</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4499">API</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16464">neoliberal</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16864">Stephen Brown</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16865">Amy Hawkins</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16866">K&amp;L Gates</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/3037">hillary clinton</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5127">conocophillips</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/14516">Phillips 66</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16867">Charles Drevna</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16868">Railway Age</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16869">DOT-111</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16870">CPC-1232</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/14235">Tesoro</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16871">American Fuel &amp; Petrochemical Manufacturers</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16872">Valerie Jarrett</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5086">PR</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16873">AFPM</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/propaganda">propaganda</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/public-relations">Public Relations</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16874">Neoliberalism</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/657">ExxonMobil</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8660">Democratic Party</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16875">Roxanne Butler</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16876">Misty McGowen</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16877">Michael Yoham</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8243">Burlington Northern Santa Fe</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/643">American Petroleum Institute</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16878">University of Chicago</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4754">President Obama</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16879">Cost-Benefit Legal Analysis</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8244">BNSF</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16880">Howard Shelanski</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16881">Richard Revesz</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7461">Warren Buffett</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1520">Barack Obama</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16882">Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16883">New York University Law School</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16884">NYU</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16885">NYU Law School</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6799">Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16886">DOT</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6797">PHMSA</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/14840">Bomb Trains</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/14206">oil-by-rail</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10379">oil trains</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7174">Bakken Shale</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5133">fracking</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5137">hydraulic fracturing</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7277">shale oil</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8931">unconventional oil</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/15409">Anthony Foxx</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6276">Naomi Klein</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16887">Rachel Maddow</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6798">Department of Transportation</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2953">Office of Management and Budget</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/white-house">white house</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/3932">Cass Sunstein</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16888">The Shock Doctrine</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8543">Chicago School of Economics</a></div></div></div>Sun, 15 Jun 2014 14:00:00 +0000Justin Mikulka and Steve Horn8214 at http://www.desmogblog.comTransCanada Charitable Fund Launches Keystone XL "Good Neighbor" Charm Offensivehttp://www.desmogblog.com/2014/04/29/transcanada-charitable-fund-keystone-xl-good-neighbor-charm-offensive
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/Screen%20Shot%202014-04-24%20at%204.49.04%20PM.png?itok=9Xp_ZeAV" width="200" height="156" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="http://desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/5420">TransCanada</a> has taken a page out of former <span class="caps">U.S.</span> President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's playbook and deployed a public relations “<a href="http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/89950.html">charm offensive</a>” in Texas, home of the southern leg of its <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/5857">Keystone <span class="caps">XL</span></a> tar sands pipeline now known as the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/14687">Gulf Coast Pipeline Project</a>.</p>
<p>In the 1930s and 1940s, Roosevelt utilized a “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Neighbor_policy">good neighbor policy</a>“ — conceptualized today as “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_power">soft power</a>” by <span class="caps">U.S.</span> foreign policy practitioners — to curry favor in Latin America and win over its public. Recently, TransCanada announced it would do something similar in Texas with its newly formed <a href="https://www.scholarselect.com/scholarships/14200-transcanada-charitable-fund-grant--application-for-2014">TransCanada Charitable Fund</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.jacksonvilleprogress.com/news/x1783682964/TransCanada-grants-50K-to-area-non-profits">TransCanada has pledged $125,000 to 18 Texas counties</a> over the next four years, funds it channeled through the <a href="http://www.etcf.org/">East Texas Communities Foundation</a>. In February, the company announced the <a href="http://www.jacksonvilleprogress.com/news/x1783682964/TransCanada-grants-50K-to-area-non-profits">first non-profit recipients of its initial $50,000 grant cycle</a>. </p>
<p>“The fund is designed to help improve East Texas communities and the lives of their residents through grants to qualifying non-profit organizations in the counties where TransCanada pipeline operations and projects exist,” <a href="http://www.jacksonvilleprogress.com/news/x1783682964/TransCanada-grants-50K-to-area-non-profits#sthash.bFVDw9sE.dpuf">explained a press release</a>. “All funded projects and programs fall within three charitable categories: community, safety, and the environment.”</p>
<p>TransCanada utilizes the “good neighbor” language in deploying its own public relations pitch.</p>
<p>“At TransCanada, being a good neighbor and contributing to communities is an integral part of our success,” TransCanada's Corey Goulet <a href="http://www.jacksonvilleprogress.com/news/x1783682964/TransCanada-grants-50K-to-area-non-profits#sthash.bFVDw9sE.dpuf">said in a press release</a>. “The establishment of the fund is another example of our commitment to long-term community investment and our dedication to the people of East Texas.”</p>
<!--break-->
<h3>
Fund Launched After Safety Issues Revealed</h3>
<p><a href="http://www.kxii.com/home/headlines/TransCanada-announces-grant-program-for-East-Texas-counties-232434551.html?ref=551" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Less than a week after</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> Public Citizen </span><a href="http://desmogblog.com/2013/11/12/new-investigative-report-reveals-dents-holes-keystone-xl-south-half" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">published its November 2013 report addressing safety issues</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> discovered during the construction phase of <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/oil-to-begin-flowing-in-southern-leg-of-keystone-pipeline/2014/01/21/ffe35abc-82bb-11e3-bbe5-6a2a3141e3a9_story.html">Keystone <span class="caps">XL</span>'s southern leg</a>, TransCanada announced the launch of its charitable fund. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=183">Public Citizen</a>'s report, “</span><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://www.citizen.org/documents/Keystone%20report%20November%202013.pdf">Construction Problems Raise Questions About the Integrity of the Pipeline</a>,”</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em; font-size: 13px;"> found 250 miles of the pipelines' 485-mile route had faulty welding, dents and several parts patched up, among other </span>anomalies<span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em; font-size: 13px;">.</span></p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/photo-69tight%20%281%29.jpg" style="width: 350px; height: 261px;" /><br /><em style="font-size: 11px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Photo Credit: Public Citizen</em></p>
<p>Julia Trigg Crawford, a Lamar County resident (one of the counties <a href="http://https://www.scholarselect.com/scholarships/14200-transcanada-charitable-fund-grant--application-for-2014">eligible for TransCanada's grants</a>) best known as the <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/content/keystone-xl-texas-high-court-gives-hope-landowners-eminent-domain-fight">landowner who filed a major eminent domain lawsuit</a> against TransCanada for Keystone <span class="caps">XL</span> South, told DeSmogBlog she believes the timing of the fund's launch is suspect.</p>
<p>“Texans are smart enough to see what's going on here,” Crawford said.</p>
<p>“Before the heat got turned up with the Public Citizen report, TransCanada's community involvement consisted of half-page newspaper ads across Northeast Texas saying, '<a href="http://desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/TC%20Ad%20Tracy%20Crawford%202.pdf">We want to be more than just a pipeline company. We want to be a trusted neighbor</a>.'”</p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Screen%20Shot%202014-04-25%20at%206.40.10%20PM.png" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em; width: 400px; height: 549px;" /></p>
<h3>
Environment and Safety Grants</h3>
<p>Despite the concerns about the ecological impacts and safety issues related to Keystone <span class="caps">XL</span>'s southern half (or perhaps because of them), environment and safety are two of the categories TransCanada will give grants to out of the fund.</p>
<p>Safety grant “projects will enable emergency personnel to respond quickly and effectively to local needs and focus on emergency preparedness, accident prevention, and education and training,” <a href="https://www.scholarselect.com/scholarships/14200-transcanada-charitable-fund-grant--application-for-2014">says TransCanada on its grant application form</a>, while environment grant “<span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">programs will conserve important habitat, protect species at risk, and educate individuals about the importance of the environment.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Non-profits are eligible for grants of up to $5,000. </span></p>
<h3>
Not Charming, Rather Offensive</h3>
<p>The <a href="http://www.jacksonvilleprogress.com/news/x1783682964/TransCanada-grants-50K-to-area-non-profits">$125,000 TransCanada has pledged to its charitable fund</a> equates to <span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">0.04 percent of the expense of building Keystone <span class="caps">XL</span> South </span><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">and its </span><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/12/18/keystone-xl-fork-in-road-transcanada-houston-lateral-pipeline" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">“fork in the road,” the Houston Lateral Project</a>.<span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">TransCanada says constructing Keystone <span class="caps">XL</span> South and Houston Lateral </span><a href="http://www.transcanada.com/docs/Investor_Centre/2013-TransCanada-Annual-Report.pdf" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">rang them up to a grand total of $3 billion</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> in its 2013 Annual Report. </span><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Put another way, that means </span><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">$400 for every $1 million it spent to build it.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The fewer than pennies to the dollar the company has offered as part of its charitable fund is </span><a href="http://www.cbs19.tv/story/23973914/transcanada-charitable-fund-established" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">clearly charming to some of the grantees</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">, based on their public reactions after winning the cash.</span></p>
<p>But to those concerned about <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tar-sands-and-keystone-xl-pipeline-impact-on-global-warming/">climate change</a> and <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/top-10-facts-canada-alberta-oil-sands-information">ecological costs</a> of sending vast amounts of <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/2632">tar sands</a> oil via TransCanada's pipelines to Texas refineries on a daily basis — located in towns such as <a href="http://www.onearth.org/articles/2013/08/if-built-the-keystone-xl-pipeline-will-end-in-one-toxic-town">Port Arthur</a> and <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/05/23/houston-tar-sands-sacrifice-zone">Houston</a> that are akin to “sacrifice zones” — the company's latest <span class="caps">PR</span> maneuver is just downright offensive.</p>
<p>As Crawford put it bluntly, “TransCanada's hush money is as dirty as its oil.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:11px;"><em><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Image Credit: </span><a href="http://www.thewoodcountydemocrat.com/news/2013-11-27/News/East_Texas_Communities_Foundation_Announces_TransC.html"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">East Texas Communities Foundation</span></a></em></span></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5857">Keystone XL</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16082">TransCanada 2013 Profits</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7554">Port Arthur</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/917">texas</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9349">U.S. State Department</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8896">U.S. Department of State</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1269">John Kerry</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1520">Barack Obama</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16076">Charm Offensive</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/public-relations">Public Relations</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/propaganda">propaganda</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5086">PR</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2632">tar sands</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/oil-sands">oil sands</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5538">bitumen</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6950">dilbit</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/11030">Keystone XL South</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/11031">Keystone XL North</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/14687">Gulf Coast Pipeline Project</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16077">Good Neighbor Policy</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16078">East Texas Communities Foundation</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16079">FDR</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16080">Franklin Delano Roosevelt</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16081">TransCanada Charitable Fund</a></div></div></div>Tue, 29 Apr 2014 20:14:27 +0000Steve Horn8045 at http://www.desmogblog.comRange Resources Spokesman Matt Pitzarella Misrepresented Education Credentials, Never Received Business Ethics Degreehttp://www.desmogblog.com/2014/01/13/range-resources-spokesman-matt-pitzarella-misrepresented-education-credentials
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/pitz-linked.jpg?itok=6RwBwGNt" width="200" height="176" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><em>This is a guest post by <a href="http://marcellusmonitor.wordpress.com/2014/01/13/range-resources-spokesman-matt-pitzarella-misrepresented-education-credentials/">Amanda Gillooly, originally published on Marcellus Monitor</a>. </em><br /><br /><a href="http://www.rangeresources.com/">Range Resources</a> Director of Corporate Communications Matt Pitzarella has long listed a master of science degree in leadership and business ethics from <a href="http://www.duq.edu/">Duquesne University</a> as one of his educational accomplishments – one he claimed to have earned in 2005. That degree is listed under his educational <span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">experience on his </span><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/matt-pitzarella/6/68/7a9" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Linkedin profile</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">In a profile piece that appeared on the website for the Cal Times (the student publication of the </span><a href="http://www.calu.edu/" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">California University of Pennsylvania</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">, where he earned his undergraduate degree), contributing editor Casey Flores wrote:</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Matt is a genuine success story. After graduating from Cal U with a major in public relations and minor in marketing, Matt went on to work his way up through the education and corporate world with a master’s degree in leadership and business ethics from Duquesne University. He attributes much of his success, however, to the internships he <a href="http://sai.calu.edu/caltimes/index.php/2013/02/08/marcellus-shale-makes-staying-local-possible-for-grads/#" id="_GPLITA_7" title="Click to Continue &gt; by Start Savin">completed</a> during his time at Cal U.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">He also lists the degree on </span><a href="http://www.yatedo.com/p/Matt+Pitzarella/normal/765253356c08b2e089f6672a2f1190a4" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">yatedo.com here</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">However, an investigation into his education reveals that Pitzarella never earned a degree through Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Marcellus Monitor received this email from the university’s Director of Communications, Tammy Ewin in response to our inquiry into Pitzarella’s degree</span><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">:</span></p>
<blockquote>
<strong>Matt Pitzarella does not have a degree from Duquesne University. He attended from the spring of 2004 through fall 2004 in the master of science in leadership and business </strong><strong>ethics program.</strong></blockquote>
<!--break-->
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">But that’s not the way he’s portrayed his educational accomplishments in recent publications. Like this personal profile piece published in Southpointe Today: </span></p>
<p><a href="http://marcellusmonitor.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/pitz.jpg"><img alt="Pitzarella interviewed in Southpointe Today" height="184" src="http://marcellusmonitor.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/pitz.jpg?w=600&amp;h=368" width="300" /></a></p>
<p>Pitzarella is the controversial spokesman for Range, a leader in Marcellus Shale drilling, who has often made national headlines for statements made in high-profile litigation cases. </p>
<p>In January 2012, he claimed a Texas man who sued Range for water contamination lied about problems he was having at his home. </p>
<p>One website reports that Pitzarella said the man, Steven Lipsky, <a href="http://www.weatherforddemocrat.com/local/x1456440039/Lipsky-water-well-suit-dealt-big-blow">“deliberately falsified an internet video of his garden hose flaming.”</a> Pitzarella <a href="http://desmogblog.com/gas-fracking-industry-using-military-psychological-warfare-tactics-and-personnel-u-s-communities">also made national headlines</a> when, at the <a href="http://www.media-stakeholder-relations-hydraulic-fracturing.com/" target="_blank">Media <span class="amp">&amp;</span> Stakeholder Relations: Hydraulic Fracturing Initiative 2011</a> conference he revealed in a <a href="http://www.media-stakeholder-relations-hydraulic-fracturing.com/5/speakers/" target="_blank">presentation</a> that Range hires veterans with combat experience in psychological warfare to influence communities in which the company drills for gas. </p>
<p>Pitzarella also made national headlines regarding a lifetime gag order on the minor children of a Pennsylvania family that settled a lawsuit alleging that drilling activity by the company led to water contamination. </p>
<p>Documents in what is known as the Hallowich case were unsealed after two Pittsburgh area newspapers petitioned the court. The settlement agreement called for the ban, and a <a href="http://pipeline.post-gazette.com/news/archives/25271-confidential-agreement-should-have-been-part-of-washington-county-marcellus-shale-case-record">Range attorney later confirmed to reporters</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">I guess our position is it does apply to the whole family. We would certainly enforce it. </span><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">But in what was referred to as a “<span class="caps">PR</span> debacle” Pitzarella later back pedaled. </span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://news.msn.com/us/fracking-gag-order-for-children-now-disputed">According to <span class="caps">MSN</span></a>:</p>
<blockquote>
‘It was never, ever intended to apply to the children. There’s no mention of the children in the settlement agreement. It was always intended to apply to the parents,’ Range Resources spokesman Matt Pitzarella told <span class="caps">MSN</span> News. But the Hallowiches’ lawyer, Peter Villari, disagreed. ‘That may be their position now, based on the press they’re getting. That was not their position to the judge at the hearing, as clearly stated by their attorney.’</blockquote>
<p>Pitzarella did not return a phone message Monday seeking comment on this story. </p>
<p>There are many published instances of high-profile executives being untruthful about the degrees they have earned. </p>
<p>Business Insider reported that <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2002/04/25/pf/investing/grubman/">Jack Grubman was Wall Street’s highest-paid analyst with a salary of $20 million per year</a> until it was uncovered that he never attended <span class="caps">MIT</span>, as he had claimed. </p>
<p>To read more from Business Insider about executives who lied about their degrees,<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/9-people-who-were-publicly-shamed-for-lying-on-their-resumes-2012-5?op=1"> click here.</a><br /><br /><object height="405" width="540"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/xKGeHuln08A?hl=en_US&amp;version=3" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="405" src="//www.youtube.com/v/xKGeHuln08A?hl=en_US&amp;version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="540"></embed></object></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6158">Range Resources</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7647">Matt Pitzarella</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/14983">Steven Lipsky</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/11937">Weatherford</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/917">texas</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/epa">EPA</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1471">Environmental Protection Agency</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7666">psyops</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/14984">Tammy Erwin</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7650">psychological warfare</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8901">Psychological Operations</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/14985">Psywar</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/14986">James Cannon</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/14987">Jim Cannon</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/public-relations">Public Relations</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/propaganda">propaganda</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5133">fracking</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5137">hydraulic fracturing</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5565">shale gas</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7277">shale oil</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6344">unconventional gas</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8931">unconventional oil</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/14988">Duquesne University</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5401">Marcellus shale</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/14989">Marcellus Monitor</a></div></div></div>Mon, 13 Jan 2014 23:40:17 +0000Guest7752 at http://www.desmogblog.comGreenwashing the Tar Sands, Part 2: Do As I Say, Not As I Dohttp://desmog.ca/2013/04/04/greenwashing-do-i-say-not-i-do
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/Screen%20Shot%202013-04-05%20at%209.27.54%20AM.png?itok=JZxNzpEA" width="200" height="179" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Last week, I <a href="http://desmog.ca/2013/03/19/short-history-greenwashing-tar-sands">wrote a short history of the greenwashing campaign</a> being waged by tar sands promoters, including (and especially) the Canadian and Alberta governments. It’s clear that as the battle over the future of tar sands development has intensified, so has the greenwashing necessary to promote it in the age of climate change and increasing environmental literacy. The more people know about the dangerous costs and risks associated with tar sands development, the more time, effort and money its promoters must invest in the alchemy of disingenuous propaganda.</p>
<p>The frustrating part for Canadians concerned with this egregious abuse and misuse of language is that there doesn’t appear to be any recourse. Tar sands supporters seem to disseminate their little black lies with impunity, and there is no way, in a democracy where free speech is sacrosanct, to stop the flood of tar sands bullshit sullying the airwaves.</p>
<!--break-->
<p>And yet, I may have stumbled on at least one way to hold those who choose to misrepresent the true nature of the environmental problems associated with turning Alberta’s bitumen deposits into tar sands crude to well-accepted standards of decency and honesty.</p>
<p>In 2008, the federal government’s Competition Bureau, in partnership with the Canadian Standards Association, published <em><a href="http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/eng/02701.html">Environmental Claims: A Guide for Industry and Advertisers</a></em>. Ostensibly, the guide was prepared to help businesses and advertisers (and presumably public relations gurus as well) make self-declared environmental claims in a more honest and informative manner, and to avoid using “misleading or deceptive claims relating to an implied or expressed environmental benefit.”</p>
<p>The guide defines “self-declared environmental claims” as “those claims that are made by manufacturers, importers, distributors, or any person who promotes a product/service or business interest who is likely to benefit from the product’s environmental claims.” It doesn’t explicitly include politicians in this list, but given that tar sands oil is a “product” that is likely to benefit federal and provincial politicians as well as the corporations that produce and transport it, I see no reason not to hold politicians to the same standards as the oil companies for whom they shill.</p>
<p>The federal government’s Competition Bureau, moreover, considers these guidelines, published five years ago now, to reflect “best practices”. While conceding that businesses are free to adopt any business practices they choose, the claims they make cannot be “false or misleading.” If the recommendations included in <em>Environmental Claims</em> are followed, the guide goes on, “it is unlikely that environmental claims used in the promotion of a product or service or business interest would raise concerns under the statutes administered by the Competition Bureau,” which includes the <em>Competition Act.</em></p>
<p>According to the guide, the types of “anti-competitive activities” frowned on by the Competition Bureau include, among other things, “materially false and misleading representations [that] are made knowingly or recklessly to the public” and “deceptive marketing practices.” Indeed, Section 2.2.2 of the <em>Competition Act</em> “prohibits knowingly or recklessly making, or permitting the making, of a representation to the public, in any form whatever, that is false or misleading in a material respect.”</p>
<p>Referencing <span class="caps">CAN</span>/<span class="caps">CSA</span>-<span class="caps">ISO</span> 14021, which details the appropriate use of environmental terms, the guide specifically states that self-declared environmental claims shall be “accurate and not misleading”, “substantiated and verified”, and “unlikely to result in misinterpretation”. In addition, they shall not “suggest an environmental improvement that does not exist”, nor shall they “exaggerate the environmental aspect of the product to which the claim relates”. Environmental claims shall not be made “if, despite the claim being literally true, it is likely to be misinterpreted by purchasers” or is “misleading through the omission of relevant facts.”</p>
<p><strong>How well do Canada’s political and commercial tar sands promoters follow the federal government’s guidelines on the appropriate use of environmental claims? Not particularly well, as it turns out.</strong></p>
<p>Tar sands development and/or oil has variously been described as a “clean” and “sustainable” form of energy by various Canadian politicians too numerous to mention. Alberta politicians even talk about bitumen development as part of its “<a href="http://www.oilsands.alberta.ca/cleanenergystory.html">Clean Energy Story</a>” (whatever that means), where they claim Alberta they are “doing our part to move the world towards a clean energy future.” Canada’s outspoken Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver went so far recently as to call them “<a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-pitches-the-oil-sands-as-green/article9306257/">green</a>.”</p>
<p>It’s hard to imagine that any hydrocarbon, never mind tar sands bitumen, could be reasonably understood to be a “clean” source of energy.<br /><br />
Although the guide doesn’t mention the word “clean” specifically, Section 5.6 specifies that “it is not sufficient to make vague claims of environmental improvement or implying environmental improvement.” If we’re only talking <a href="http://www.iaea.org/OurWork/ST/NE/Pess/assets/GHG_manuscript_pre-print_versionDanielWeisser.pdf">greenhouse gas emissions</a>, energy generated from hydro, nuclear and wind are generally considered the least intensive, and natural gas is the cleanest hydrocarbon (though its ten times worse than hydro). Tar sands oil, on the other hand, is about as dirty as it gets, and is <a href="http://www.pembina.org/oil-sands/os101/climate">significantly dirtier than conventional crude</a>. It is also getting dirtier as more bitumen is extracted using in situ methods. Bitumen may be cleaner than coal, but calling it “clean” is kind of like calling Hitler humane because he didn’t kill as many people as Stalin.</p>
<p>Tar sands development also spews tonnes (literally) of other pollutants into the region’s land, water and wildlife (and perhaps even people). Some of the pollutants – napthenic acids, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and heavy metals – are toxic at low levels, and there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that tar sands mines, upgraders and tailings ponds are spewing the stuff into the <a href="http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/Environmental+group+calls+investigation+possible+charges+against+oilsands+companies/8059877/story.html#ixzz2NMjGkklZ">air</a> and <a href="ftp://ftp2.cits.rncan.gc.ca/pub/geott/ess_pubs/292/292074/of_7195.pdf">water</a> faster than anyone’s ready to admit. David Schindler <a href="http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/alberta/Scientist+links+crude+fish+deformities+asks+Canada/8190622/story.html">recently found similarities between fish deformities</a> found downstream from Alberta's tar sands and those observed after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska and Florida's Deepwater Horizon disaster.</p>
<p>How about “sustainable”? Not so much. According to the guide, “the concepts involved in sustainability are highly complex and still under study. At this time there are no definitive methods for measuring sustainability or confirming its accomplishment. <strong><em>Therefore, no claim of achieving sustainability shall be made.</em></strong>” (Emphasis added)<br /><br />
Sometimes, the guide admits, “claims that refer to specific, registered management systems are acceptable provided that they can be verified.” Given that neither Canada nor Alberta has an adequate monitoring system in place or a policy regime that actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions, any claim of “sustainability” is pure hogwash. This probably should apply to Alberta’s Orwellian <a href="http://srd.alberta.ca/">Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development</a> and Canada’s ridiculously ambiguous <em><a href="http://www.ec.gc.ca/dd-sd/default.asp?lang=En&amp;n=C2844D2D-1">Federal Sustainable Development Act</a></em>, neither of which have moved us a millimetre toward so-called “sustainable” development.</p>
<p>The guide specifically identifies the term “green,” which Minister Oliver abused to describe his beloved tar sands oil, as an example of the “vague claims of environmental improvement” that should never be made. Any such claim, the guide goes on, “must detail the environmental benefit in such a way that it can be verified.” It’s difficult to imagine how Minister Oliver could verify that tar sands oil is in any way “green,” but I thought I’d check his website to see what I could find.</p>
<p>Natural Resources Canada’s website used to include a section on the tar sands, but it’s not there anymore. I did learn that the federal government’s <em>Responsible Resource Development</em> Program “will strengthen Canada’s world-class environmental standards.” Canada’s Environment Minister, Peter Kent, made similar claims in a <a href="http://www.ec.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&amp;n=714D9AAE-1&amp;news=04345B61-8ED7-401B-A20E-ED52B3BC30CE">speech he gave about Canada’s “green economy”</a> at the European Union–Canada Going Green Conference in Montreal in March.</p>
<p>Well, the claim about Canada’s “world-class” environmental performance is one that has been verified, and it turns out to be totally and utterly false. Canada has always had <a href="http://www.ipolitics.ca/2012/02/08/david-boyd-little-green-lies-prime-minister-harper-and-canadas-environment/">some of the worst environmental legislation</a> in the developed world, and it has been weakened further by the Harper government in recent years. And everyone (except Minister Oliver, apparently) knows that <a href="http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/details/environment/greenhouse-gas-emissions.aspx">Canada is one of the worst emitters</a> (on a per capita basis) of climate-warming greenhouse gases in the developed world.</p>
<p><strong>I could go on and on, but it’s abundantly clear that Canadian politicians have ignored the guidelines the federal government has set out for businesses, advertisers and “any person who promotes a product/service or business interest who is likely to benefit from the product’s environmental claims.” I’m no lawyer, but it would seem to me that the Competition Bureau and the Canadian Standards Association might want to have a look at the “materially false and misleading representations” Canadian politicians are “knowingly and recklessly” making in Canada, Europe and the United States.</strong></p>
<p>Because if politicians can get away with rampant greenwashing, how are they going to hold businesses accountable for doing it?</p>
<p><em><a href="http://desmog.ca/2013/05/21/greenwashing-tar-sands-part-3-wherein-money-trumps-fact-every-time">Part <span class="caps">III</span></a> of this series will explore whether the oil industry does a better job following the federal government’s </em><em>Environmental Claims Guidelines for Industry and Advertising</em><em> than Canadian politicians.</em></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10px;"><em>Image Credit: TerraChoice <a href="http://sinsofgreenwashing.org/index35c6.pdf">The Sins of Greenwashing report</a>.</em></span></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1882">greenwashing</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/propaganda">propaganda</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2509">alberta tar sands</a></div></div></div>Fri, 05 Apr 2013 16:33:45 +0000Jeff Gailus7026 at http://www.desmogblog.comUtah's Students Forced to Push Fossil Fuel Propaganda for Earth Dayhttp://www.desmogblog.com/2013/03/30/utah-s-students-forced-push-fossil-fuel-propaganda-earth-day
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/poster%20contest.jpg?itok=ta1Za9xe" width="200" height="235" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Last week, Huffington Post reported a story about the </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/22/fossil-fuel-poster-contest-earth-day-utah-energy-debate_n_2933673.html" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Utah Division of Oil, Gas <span class="amp">&amp;</span> Mining’s ridiculous Earth Day Poster Contest</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">. You know, the one where elementary school students were invited to submit posters around the theme, “</span><a href="http://linux1.ogm.utah.gov/WebStuff/wwwroot/division/tabs.html#tab6" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Where Would <span class="caps">WE</span> Be Without Oil, Gas <span class="amp">&amp;</span> Mining?</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">”</span></p>
<p>Seeing as this contest was created by a state agency, every public school in Utah was given <a href="http://fs.ogm.utah.gov/PUB/DOGM/Earth_Day/EarthDayPosterContest-OfficialRules2013.pdf">this flyer (<span class="caps">PDF</span>)</a> with instructions for how to participate.</p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Fortunately, it’s up to every school to decide whether to participate, and at least some Utahns are outraged at the idea. Colby Poulson, a parent in Farmington, called the contest “propaganda” in a </span><em style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/55992432-82/gas-oil-mining-petroleum.html.csp">letter to the Salt Lake City Tribune</a></em><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">. </span></p>
<blockquote>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Why is the state backing an “Earth Day” contest that celebrates fossil fuels, while completely ignoring the adverse effects that their use and extraction can too often have on our air quality, water quality, public lands and the other organisms we share the world with? Shouldn’t Earth Day be about championing things that can help reverse the negative impact of our dependence on fossil fuels?</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Frankly, I’m disgusted that the state is backing propaganda like this in our schools.</span></p>
</blockquote>
<!--break-->
<p><img alt="" src="/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/poster%20contest.jpg" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em; width: 550px; height: 647px;" /></p>
<p>I can’t tell what’s worse: using the occasion of Earth Day to promote fossil fuels – one of the greatest threats to our environment on local and global scales – or the cynicism of how the theme of this contest is framed. Check out these contest “objectives”:</p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="caps">OBJECTIVES</span></span></p>
<p>• To improve students’ and the public’s awareness of the <strong>important role that oil, gas, and mining play in our everyday lives</strong>.<br />
• To highlight how modern mining and petroleum extraction techniques and reclamation methods <strong>minimize environmental impacts while providing society with the raw materials required to have our high standard of living</strong>.<br />
• To allow teachers to combine natural resources, science, and social studies education with individual creativity and artistic skill for an activity that meets several learning objectives in the science and social studies curricula. [<span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em; font-size: 13px;">Emphasis mine.]</span></p>
<p>So, basically, the Utah Division of Oil, Gas <span class="amp">&amp;</span> Mining is urging students to create artworks about some imagined Dark Ages without the “high standard of living” afforded to us by oil and natural gas.</p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Don’t expect the prize winners to include any idyllic pictures of unspoiled Utah wildlands or wind farms or <span class="caps">PV</span>-paneled rooftops. Because, “[t]he Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining staff will judge the posters based on depiction of the theme, visibility of the theme, demonstration of how products from mining and oil <span class="amp">&amp;</span> gas extraction are essential to our daily lives, artistic merit, and originality.”</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Why would the state organize such a contest? One look at the sponsor list – which reads like a veritable who’s who of polluters – should answer that question:</span></p>
<ul><li>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Utah Division of Oil, Gas <span class="amp">&amp;</span> Mining</span></li>
<li>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Society of Petroleum Engineers</span></li>
<li>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Rio Tinto/Kennecott Utah Copper</span></li>
<li>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Wheeler Machinery Company</span></li>
<li>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Bill Barrett Corporation</span></li>
<li>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Anadarko Petroleum Corporation</span></li>
<li>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="caps">U.S.</span> Magnesium</span></li>
<li>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Wind River Resources</span></li>
<li>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Simplot Phosphate</span></li>
<li>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Newfield Exploration</span></li>
<li>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Utah Mining Association</span></li>
<li>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Arch Coal, Inc.</span></li>
<li>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">National Energy Foundation</span></li>
<li>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Savage Companies</span></li>
<li>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Arch Coal Sufco Mine</span></li>
<li>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Summit Energy Management Corporation</span></li>
<li>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Canyon Fuel Skyline Mine</span></li>
<li>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Enpro, <span class="caps">LLC</span></span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">This isn't the first time the </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Utah Division of Oil, Gas <span class="amp">&amp;</span> Mining has held such a contest, though last year's theme was slightly less cynical: How do <span class="caps">YOU</span> use oil, gas and mining? Here's last year's winning poster.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><img alt="" src="/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/2013.02.14_Utah_Earth_Day_Sienna_Curtis.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 373px;" /></span></span></p>
<p>At least conservation was encouraged as a theme in last year's contest. </p>
<p>Responding to the absurdity, the grassroots group <a href="http://www.utahmomsforcleanair.org/">Utah Moms for Clean Air</a> organized a rival contest, also open to students in grades K-6. The theme: “<a href="http://blog.utahmomsforcleanair.org/2013/03/20/utah-moms-for-clean-air-announces-love-your-mother-earth-day-poster-contest/">Explore the Economic, Environmental and Health Costs of Fossil Fuels on Utah</a>.”</p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The group’s founder, Cherise Udell, explained to the <em>Huffington Post</em>, “I was horrified and dumbfounded when I heard about the [Division of Oil, Gas and Mining's] contest…</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Utah is a laughing stock of the nation, if not the world, for the absurdity of promoting a fossil fuel contest for Earth Day…We need to show the world that not everyone in Utah is on board with this. We're getting back some of our dignity, dignity for our state.”</span></p>
<p>The deadline for that contest is April 19, so you still have time to get your submissions in.</p>
<p>We’ll follow up once winners in both contests are announced.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12308">earth day poster contest</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1876">Utah</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/propaganda">propaganda</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12309">Utah Division of Oil Gas &amp; Mining</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9947">Society of Petroleum Engineers</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7221">rio tinto</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12310">Kennecott Utah Copper</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12311">Wheeler Machinery Company</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7073">bill barrett corporation</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12312">Anadarko Petroleum Corporation</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12313">U.S. Magnesium</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12314">Wind River Resources</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12315">Simplot Phosphate</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12316">Newfield Exploration</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12317">Utah Mining Association</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5671">Arch Coal</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12318">National Energy Foundation</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12319">Savage Companies</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12320">Summit Energy Management Corporation</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12321">Canyon Fuel</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12322">Skyline Mine</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12323">Enpro</a></div></div></div>Sat, 30 Mar 2013 19:59:47 +0000Ben Jervey7003 at http://www.desmogblog.comA Short History of Greenwashing the Tar Sands, Part 1 http://desmog.ca/2013/03/19/short-history-greenwashing-tar-sands
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/tar%20sands%20lakes%20image.png?itok=WpykoZMk" width="200" height="70" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><em>This is Part One of a three-part series on the political greenwashing of the tar sands in Canada.</em></p>
<p>When I hatched the idea to write a book about the use of spin and propaganda in the battle over the tar sands, a close friend of mine suggested I avoid the term “tar sands.” His logic was simple: using this term, which has become a pejorative, would turn some people off, people who might benefit, he said, from reading my book.</p>
<p>His recommendation was meant to be helpful, but it speaks to the power of manipulating language to make people believe something appears to be something that it is not. “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwashing">Greenwashing</a>” refers to the strategy of intentionally exaggerating a product’s environmental credentials in order to sell it, and nowhere has greenwashing been more generously used than in the promotion of the tar sands and the new and bigger pipelines that proponents hope will carry it around the world.</p>
<p>Greenwashing is fairly recent phenomenon—it was only added to the <em>Oxford English Dictionary</em> in 1999—but it has become commonplace as public concern has grown over the spate of environmental problems we now face, and as consumers demand “greener” products as a means of solving them. The most recent analysis by TerraChoice Environmental Marketing found that although the number of green products is growing, the marketing of more than 95 per cent of them still commits <a href="http://sinsofgreenwashing.org/findings/the-seven-sins/index.html">one the seven sins of greenwashing</a>.</p>
<!--break-->
<p>The most egregious of these greenwashing efforts include such misleading efforts to market <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/clean-coal-joke">coal as “clean,”</a> which is simply an Orwellian way of referring to the dirtiest of all hydrocarbon energy sources; greenhouse-gas intensive shale oil as <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/does-red-leaf-s-ecoshale-technology-greenwash-oil-shale-extraction">faux-green “EcoShale”</a>; and, yes, the characterization of the pollution-laden and climate-warming tar sands as a responsible, sustainable, even “green” source of energy.</p>
<p>It comes as a surprise to most people I talk to that “tar sands” was actually the preferred term for Alberta’s newest hydrocarbon resource when it first came to market in the late 1960s. It wasn’t until the environmental community began to educate the public about the dirty downsides of turning bitumen into crude in the late 1990s that Big Oil and Canadian governments began using the term more useful and cleaner-sounding “oil sands” to promote its development in northern Alberta.</p>
<p></p>
<p>But this was only the first step in the greenwashing of the tar sands. The media was coerced into using “oil sands” rather than the once-dominant “tar sands” by tar sands proponents’ relentless attacks on those who used the term “tar sands,” portraying them as environmental extremists and disloyal Canadians. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (<span class="caps">CBC</span>), for instance, actually has a language policy that <em>mandates </em>the use of “oil sands,” claiming it is “more neutral and more accurate because the substance refined from the extracted bitumen is oil.” (As Canadian journalist Andrew Nikiforuk, whose award-winning book <em>Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the</em> <em>Future of a Continent</em>, points out, if this was really how we named things, then we’d call tomatoes “ketchup” and trees “lumber.) This only serves to reinforce the aims of the pro-tar sands lobby, which is to portray the tar sands in as benign a light as possible.</p>
<p>When using the term “oil sands” was no longer enough to counter growing evidence about the environmental impacts of the tar sands, the oil industry polled Canadians to better understand how they viewed tar sands development. Not surprisingly, Canadians, regardless of political affiliation, wanted oil companies to limit the environmental impacts of developing Canada’s tar sands. In short, they wanted them developed responsibly.</p>
<p>The natural response was to tell Canadians what they wanted to hear. Rather than address the growing environmental concerns—particularly growing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing evidence of toxic pollution in ground and surface water, not to mention the impending extirpation of the region’s <a href="http://desmogblog.com/crywolf">threatened caribou</a> populations—the Alberta government continued to approve record-breaking numbers of tar sands projects, and the oil industry, and the Alberta and federal governments began using the terms “clean,” “responsible,” and “sustainable” to characterize tar sands development.</p>
<p>Ezra Levant, a former tobacco-lobbyist and virulent tar sands promoter, added the term “ethical oil” by writing a book arguing that Canada’s tar sands crude was the most ethical oil on the planet. He argued that because Canada was a democracy with strong environmental laws and regulation and an excellent human rights record, tar sands oil was better than oil from authoritarian dictatorships like Saudi Arabia. Despite the fact his analysis was roundly criticized by professional ethicists, the term caught on and was adopted by media pundits and even politicians.</p>
<p>The latest greenwashing torpedo came recently from Canadian Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver, who pitched the tar sands as a “green” energy source, and then told an audience in Chicago that “Canada is the environmentally responsible choice for the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> to meet its energy needs in oil for years to come.” That this is the greenest of greenwashing has been ably <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/no-minister-oliver-the-oil-sands-have-not-become-green/article9503879/?cmpid=rss1">debunked</a> here, there and everywhere.</p>
<p>It’s clear that the rhetoric from Canada’s pro-tar sands politicians has continued to escalate over the years, from a subtle name change to outlandish and unsupportable claims of environmental virtue. While this may seem like an unimportant debate about semantics, it is really an illustration of how dangerous these tactics are. When this kind of messaging is injected into speeches, media coverage, and well-funded advertising campaigns, it works. Polls, many of which use <a href="http://oilsandstruth.org/enbridge-ipsosreid-poll-and-disinformation-tactics">greenwashing techniques of their own</a> to conceal the true environmental risks and impacts of the tar sands, indicate the majority of Canadians believe that it’s possible to <a href="http://www.ipsos-na.com/news-polls/pressrelease.aspx?id=5614">increase oil and gas development and still protect the environment</a>, so they support tar sands development as long as “a continuous effort to limit the environmental impact” is being made.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter whether language is being used honestly and with integrity, or whether the environmental impact of the tar sands is actually being reduced (it is not). What matters is that <a href="http://o.canada.com/2012/08/22/marketing-campaign-boosted-oilsands-image-in-key-markets-poll/">greenwashing is having a dangerously misleading impact on Canadians</a>’ perceptions of tar sands development.</p>
<p><em>Part <span class="caps">II</span> of this series will explore whether the greenwashing activities of Canadian politicians and governments would get passing grades from the federal government’s Environmental Claims Guidelines for Industry and Advertising.</em></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10px;"><em>Image Credit: <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2012/10/04/oil-industry-looks-create-lake-district-open-pit-mines-and-toxic-tar-sands-waste">Cumulative Environmental Management Association</a> report on tar sands tailings ponds </em></span></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1882">greenwashing</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/propaganda">propaganda</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2632">tar sands</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5599">ethical oil</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5600">Ezra Levant</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7889">Joe Oliver</a></div></div></div>Tue, 19 Mar 2013 17:23:43 +0000Jeff Gailus6976 at http://www.desmogblog.comWhen War is Peace and Dirty, Cleanhttp://desmog.ca/2013/02/07/when-war-peace-and-dirty-clean
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/LBL_cover_1.jpg?itok=th-NWOip" width="200" height="304" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Every communications expert knows that truth is rarely self-evident. Indeed, no matter how hare-brained or incredulous an idea is, if it serves the interests of a particular group of people who want it to be true, they’ll ignore any and all evidence to make it so.</p>
<p>Paul Krugman, an influential economist and columnist for the <em>New York Times</em>, recently <a href="http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/incestuous-amplification-economics-edition/">wrote about this problematic phenomenon in the American military</a>, where it is known as “incestuous amplification.” “Highly dubious ideas become certainties,” he wrote, “when a closed group of people repeat the the same things to each other – and when accepting the group’s preconceptions itself becomes a necessary ticket to being in the in-group.”</p>
<p>He refers, as an example, to the early days of what he calls the Iraq debacle, “where perfectly obvious propositions – the case for invading is very weak, the occupation may well be a nightmare – weren’t so much rejected as ruled out of discussion altogether; if you even considered those possibilities, you weren’t a serious person, no matter what your credentials.”</p>
<p>If this sounds eerily familiar, you might be thinking of the protracted campaign by Big Oil and the Alberta and Canadian governments to brand tar sands oil as a “clean, responsible and sustainable” source of energy. Earlier this week, I visited the Alberta government’s <a href="http://www.oilsands.alberta.ca/cleanenergystory.html">oil sands website</a> to read about “Alberta’s clean energy story,” where we learn that Albertans “are doing our part to move the world towards a clean energy future.”</p>
<!--break-->
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>It is crucial that the world gets its energy from regions that take environmental and humanitarian responsibilities seriously,” we are told, “and work to improve how fossil fuels are developed and used. With the world's third largest proven oil reserves, Alberta is front and centre in these efforts.”</p>
<p>Like the bogus rationale for invading Iraq, these preposterous claims do not reflect the reality on the ground; they are simply a preferred (and perverted) version of the truth created by a “closed group of people” (Big Oil, government politicians and bureaucrats, and the army of communications people who make this fiction real) who have been “repeat[ing] the the same things to each other” for decades. It is, in short, “incestuous amplification” incessantly amplified, and it’s dangerous.</p>
<p>George Orwell wrote about this strategy in his acclaimed novel <em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four">1984</a>. </em>“<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspeak">Newsspeak</a>” is the deliberately impoverished language used by the state to prevent any alternative thinking. It appropriates language and distorts the meanings of words. And so, as Orwell imagined it, Oceania’s Ministry of Truth adopts the slogans “<span class="caps">WAR</span> <span class="caps">IS</span> <span class="caps">PEACE</span>” and “<span class="caps">IGNORANCE</span> <span class="caps">IS</span> <span class="caps">STRENGTH</span>.” To these we can add, “<span class="caps">DIRTY</span> <span class="caps">IS</span> <span class="caps">CLEAN</span>” and “<span class="caps">FINITE</span> <span class="caps">IS</span> <span class="caps">SUSTAINABLE</span>.”</p>
<p>Although Orwell wrote about a totalitarian regime based loosely on the Soviet Union, he would not be surprised to find such nefarious methods being used in a capitalist democracy. Indeed, as Jim Hoggan pointed out in an <a href="http://desmog.ca/2013/01/29/ethical-oil-doublespeak-polluting-canada-s-public-square">earlier column</a>, retired American linguist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_D._Lutz" target="_blank">Dr. William Lutz</a> identified government and industry as the worst offenders of using “language designed to evade responsibility, to make the unpleasant appear pleasant … language that pretends to communicate but really doesn’t. Language designed to mislead while pretending it doesn’t.”</p>
<p>Obviously, capitalist democracies in the West rarely use overt force or threats of violence to impose beliefs on its citizens, but this is in large part because the state has learned it doesn’t need to, not when sophisticated, well-funded propaganda campaigns work just as well. The Group polls people to find out what they want – in this case, Canadians want the tar sands to be developed in a clean and responsible manner – and then distorts language to make it appear that our expectations are being met. This tactic confuses the public and, more insidiously, creates an opportunity for those of us who prefer not to suffer the worst symptoms of cognitive dissonance – depression, anxiety, panic attacks – to choose, instead, to willingly embrace <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublethink">doublethink</a>: to embrace the mutually contradictory belief that has been constructed by The Group.<br /><br />
And so “dirty” becomes “clean,” and so on and etc. If the government says it’s so, and my neighbours and friends believe it, and mainstream newspapers don’t challenge it, then it must be true. Or at the very least, it’s easier to believe that it’s true than to believe otherwise.</p>
<p>It's an insult to our collective intelligence that the tar sands lobby can use the terms “clean” and “sustainable” with impugnity to characterize its dangerous energy experiment in northern Alberta. As <a href="http://www.npr.org/2013/02/05/171138327/why-is-violence-ramping-up-in-iraq">violence and upheaval escalate in Iraq</a> since American troops pulled out, and the country threatens to spin out of control and into civil war, it’s worth pondering the long-term consequences of believing what The Group tells us. For as I wrote at the end of <em><a href="http://www.rmbooks.com/book_details.php?isbn_upc=9781926855684">Little Black Lies</a></em>, a future built on deception will be a dark one indeed.</p>
<p><br />
Jeff Gailus is the author of <em>Little Black Lies</em> and <em>The Grizzly Manifesto</em>. He writes about energy and the environment from his home in Missoula, <span class="caps">MT</span>.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/propaganda">propaganda</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/11420">Little Black Lies</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2632">tar sands</a></div></div></div>Thu, 07 Feb 2013 14:00:00 +0000Jeff Gailus6861 at http://www.desmogblog.comEthical Oil Doublespeak Is Polluting Canada's Public Squarehttp://desmog.ca/2013/01/29/ethical-oil-doublespeak-polluting-canada-s-public-square
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/Tar%20Sands%20shadow%20by%20KK_0.jpg?itok=JjzQu6z3" width="200" height="271" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><em>“Like any other tool, language can be abused, used not to build but to destroy, not to communicate but to confuse, not to clarify but to obscure, not to lead but to mislead.”</em> - <a href="http://users.manchester.edu/FacStaff/MPLahman/Homepage/BerkebileMyWebsite/doublespeak.pdf">William Lutz⁠</a><br /><br />
Retired American linguist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_D._Lutz">Dr. William Lutz</a> spent much of his career at Rutgers University studying how language is abused in public conversations. He pointed to government and industry as the worst offenders in a practice known as <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Doublespeak">Doublespeak</a>, which <a href="http://www.book-notes.org/Watch/10449-1/William+Lutz.aspx">Lutz described as</a> “language designed to evade responsibility, to make the unpleasant appear pleasant … language that pretends to communicate but really doesn’t. Language designed to mislead while pretending it doesn’t.” <br /><br />
Dr. Lutz worried that doublespeak has invaded public discourse about important issues. When killing innocent men, women and children is called 'collateral damage', torture becomes 'enhanced interrogation' and the dirtiest fossil fuel becomes 'Clean Coal', public conversations lose meaning. We struggle to make sense of things. These euphemisms sanitize language and steer important issues below the public’s radar. </p>
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<p>It would be rash to regard doublespeak as mere <span class="caps">PR</span> spin. The purpose of doublespeak isn’t to persuade but to silence and confuse. It is far more cunning than <span class="caps">PR</span>. Along with euphemisms, doublespeak campaigns use propaganda techniques such as demonizing dissenting views and concocting fake debates to magnify their impact.<br /><br />
There came a point when the tobacco industry realized they could no longer rely on <span class="caps">PR</span> to challenge the link between cigarettes and cancer. They turned to doublespeak to nudge the public away from a real debate about public health to a fake debate about sound science and free choice.<br /><br />
Those concerned about public health were labeled as zealots using junk science to promote a nanny state. In the end, the tobacco industry failed to persuade the public, but their tactics protected revenue and blocked health regulations for decades.<br /><br />
The <span class="caps">U.S.</span> has been overwhelmed with doublespeak campaigns for too long. From gun control to health care and climate change, industry front groups have confused and polarized American discourse, resulting in a state of bitter gridlock.<br /><br />
While its a relatively new phenomenon north of the border, the oil and gas industry and the Harper Government launched a ‘made in Canada’ doublespeak campaign early in 2012.<br /><br />
The campaign’s euphemism, <a href="http://desmog.ca/ethical-oil"><strong>Ethical Oil</strong></a>. Its message: Canada’s oil sands industry produces ‘Ethical Oil’. The world needs our <a href="http://desmog.ca/ethical-oil">ethical oil </a>so we will crack down on these foreign-funded radical environmentalists who oppose the expansion of the oils sands via the Northern Gateway pipeline.<br /><br />
Within a very short timeframe, our national debate about environmental protection and the rights of First Nations shifted to a manufactured debate about protecting Canada’s national sovereignty and economic security against foreign interests and extremists.<br /><img alt="" src="http://desmog.ca/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Ethical%20Oil%20Doublespeak%20-%20Lutz.png" style="width: 550px; height: 489px;" /></p>
<h3>
Government and Industry Doublespeak</h3>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Here are a few of the statements made by government and industry just as the Northern Gateway pipeline public review hearings were getting under way early last year.</span><br /><br />
From the Prime Minister’s Office in January 2012:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/newsblogs/politics/inside-politics-blog/2012/01/pmo-infoalertebot-after-dark-foreign-radicals-threaten-further-delays.html"><em style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Foreign radicals threaten further delays</em></a><br /><em>Today, Ecojustice attacked the independence of the Northern Gateway Joint Review Panel. ForestEthics, Living Oceans Society and Raincoast Conservation Foundation joined them in their attack on the Joint Review Panel. <span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Here are the facts:</span><br />
The Northern Gateway is currently going through a careful and comprehensive review process to ensure the proposal is safe and environmentally sound. <br />
Radical groups are trying to clog and hijack the process, rather than letting the panel do its job independently, expeditiously, and efficiently. </em></p>
</blockquote>
<p><br /><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Then on January 8th, 2012, an oil industry front group called the </span><a href="http://desmog.ca/directory/vocabulary/8088" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Ethical Oil Institute</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> launched a national publicity blitz targeting news outlets across Canada. Here is what their spokesperson Kathryn Marshall </span><a href="http://www.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=597087" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">said on <span class="caps">CTV</span>'s Question Period</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> national political program: </span></p>
<blockquote>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>The reason why the Northern Gateway Pipeline is a good project for Canada is that it will allow Canada to export more of our ethically produced oil to different countries that can reduce their dependency on conflict oil from nations like Nigeria and Saudi Arabia and Iran that have atrocious human rights records and really don’t care about the environment at all.”</span><br /><br />
“So, we have to make sure that foreign interests and their foreign-funded front groups and lobby groups … are not hijacking the hearing process and taking over or interfering with a Canadian decision.”<br /><br />
“If you care about ethics then support jurisdictions like Canada that have environmental laws, have human rights protections, have workers rights protections,” <a href="http://www.ctvnews.ca/tempers-flare-ahead-of-b-c-pipeline-hearings-1.750773">Marshall said</a>. </p>
</blockquote>
<p><br />
Then came an <a href="http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/media-room/news-release/2012/1/3520">open letter to Canadians from Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver:</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p> ”Canada is on the edge of an historic choice [the Gateway pipeline approval]: Unfortunately, there are environmental and other radical groups that would seek to block this opportunity to diversify our trade. Their goal is to stop any major project no matter what the cost to Canadian families in lost jobs and economic growth. No forestry. No mining. No oil. No gas. No more hydroelectric dams.”<br /><br />
“These groups threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda … they use funding from foreign special interest groups to undermine Canada’s national economic interest.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p><br />
The campaign took on a 1984 tone when Public Safety Minister Vic Toews released a report on terrorism that warned Canadians of “domestic issue-based extremism” by environmentalists. The report stated:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Although not of the same scope and scale faced by other countries, low-level violence by domestic issue-based groups remains a reality in Canada. Such extremism tends to be based on grievances—real or perceived—revolving around the promotion of various causes such as animal rights, white supremacy, environmentalism and anti-capitalism.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Doubling Down</span></h3>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Astonishingly, the federal government didn’t draw the line with this unhinged political rhetoric.</span><br /><br />
On February 28, 2012, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/02/29/pol-senate-foreign-charitable-donations.html">Senator Nicole Eaton launched an inquiry</a> into the funding of environmental charities by foreign foundations, alleging what she considered a threat to the Canadian economy.<br /><br />
To Eaton, the inquiry was about so-called “master manipulators who are operating under the guise of charitable organizations in an effort to manipulate our policies for their own gain.” She used phrases such as “political manipulation” and “influence peddling” to describe the money being raised by charitable organizations. “This inquiry is about how billionaire foreign foundations have quietly moved into Canada and, under the guise of charitable deeds, are trying to define our domestic policies,” Eaton said. “Cleverly masked as grassroots movements, these interests are audaciously treading on our domestic affairs and on Canadian sovereignty, all under the radar.”<br /><br />
Eaton has publicly echoed the Ethical Oil jargon ever since she <a href="http://nicoleeaton.sencanada.ca/en/p101658">launched a senate inquiry into the benefits of the oil sands</a> back in 2010 stating, “In an industry dominated by <span class="caps">OPEC</span>, the world needs more fair trade, conflict-free, ethical Canadian oil.”<br /><br />
As the campaign heated up, the House Finance Committee launched a hearing into the foreign funding of environmental charities in response to complaints lodged by Ethical Oil Institute against the David Suzuki Foundation, Tides Canada and other charitable groups. At the end of April, in the midst of the Senate inquiry and Finance Committee hearings, Environment Minister Peter Kent upped the ante by accusing environmental groups of money laundering, a charge that other Ethical Oil advocates were quick to repeat.<br /><br />
Kent’s <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/05/04/pol-kent-charities-laundering-foreign-funds.html">accusations</a> were as follows:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">“There has also been concern that some Canadian charitable agencies have been used to launder offshore foreign funds. Whether you call it money laundering, or a financial shell game or three card Monte, it's inappropriate under those organizations' charitable status.”</span></p>
</blockquote>
<h3>
<br /><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Clearing Doublespeak From the Public Square</span></h3>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Now if you think this campaign was ill conceived and not very convincing you would be right. From water cooler chats in British Columbia to kitchen table debates in the Maritimes, most Canadians didn’t buy it. Even business leaders in the boardrooms of Bay Street and Calgary shook their heads. It was a harebrained attempt at persuasion and Canadians saw right through it. On most fronts, it backfired.</span><br /><br />
Nevertheless, we should remain concerned about the ongoing Ethical Oil campaign. Not just because it paved the way for a wholesale dismantling of environmental regulations that provided protection for communities across Canada - or because it was an inexcusable attempt to demonize conservation groups - but because doublespeak campaigns like Ethical Oil undermine confidence in constructive public discourse.<br /><br />
Doublespeak feeds the false notions that there are no facts, just spin, and that you can’t trust anyone, so why bother. Why bother to demand that industry and government clean up their act and admit what all of us already know - that there are some things that money shouldn’t be able to buy?<br /><br />
Doublespeak creates public cynicism, that’s really its purpose and that’s why it is so dangerous. Recall Dr. Lutz’s description of doublespeak as “language designed to evade responsibility.”<br /><br />
If we want to stop doublespeak pollution from clouding the public square, the public must demand better from industry and government leaders. The lack of accountability for deceptive doublespeak poses a genuine threat to Canada’s future.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:10px;"><em>Image credit: Kris Krug</em></span></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/11829">william lutz</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/11830">doublespeak</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5599">ethical oil</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/propaganda">propaganda</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7541">Kathryn Marshall</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8088">Ethical Oil Institute</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/11333">polluted public square</a></div></div></div>Tue, 29 Jan 2013 19:47:02 +0000Jim Hoggan6845 at http://www.desmogblog.comALEC, CSG, ExxonMobil Fracking Fluid "Disclosure" Model Bill Failing By Designhttp://www.desmogblog.com/2012/12/04/alec-csg-exxonmobil-fracking-fluid-disclosure-model-bill-failing-by-design
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/shutterstock_40948924.jpg?itok=wTvfpoHa" width="200" height="133" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Last year, a <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/fracking-the-future/">hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”)</a> chemical fluid disclosure “model bill” was <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/alec-wasn-t-first-industry-trojan-horse-behind-fracking-disclosure-bill-enter-council-state-governments">passed by both</a> the <a href="http://truth-out.org/news/item/10506-the-other-alecs-a-look-at-the-lesser-known-stealth-lobbies-that-write-bills-for-your-state">Council of State Governments</a> (<span class="caps">CSG</span>) and the <a href="http://www.alecexposed.org">American Legislative Exchange Council</a> (<span class="caps">ALEC</span>). It proceeded to <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/alec-wasn-t-first-industry-trojan-horse-behind-fracking-disclosure-bill-enter-council-state-governments">pass in multiple states across the country</a> soon thereafter, but as <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-30/frack-secrets-by-thousands-keep-u-s-clueless-on-wells.html"><em>Bloomberg </em>recently reported</a>, the bill has been an abject failure with regards to “disclosure.”</p>
<p>That was by design, thanks to the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/alec-wasn-t-first-industry-trojan-horse-behind-fracking-disclosure-bill-enter-council-state-governments">bill's chief author, ExxonMobil</a>. </p>
<p>Originating as a Texas bill with <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/alec-wasn-t-first-industry-trojan-horse-behind-fracking-disclosure-bill-enter-council-state-governments">disclosure standards drawn up</a> under the auspices of the Obama Administration's Department of Energy Fracking Subcommittee <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/fracking-study-panel-filled-gas-industry-insiders?utm_source=twitterfeed&amp;utm_medium=twitter">rife with oil and gas industry insiders</a>, the model is now codified as law in Colorado, Pennsylvania, and Illinois.</p>
<p><em>Bloomberg</em> reported that the public is being kept “<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-30/frack-secrets-by-thousands-keep-u-s-clueless-on-wells.html">clueless</a>” as to what chemicals are injected into the ground during the fracking process by the oil and gas industry.</p>
<!--break-->
<h3>
“Truck-Sized” Loopholes: Fracking Chemical Fluid Non-Disclosure by Design </h3>
<p>“Drilling companies in Texas, the biggest oil-and-natural gas producing state, claimed similar exemptions about 19,000 times this year through August,” <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-30/frack-secrets-by-thousands-keep-u-s-clueless-on-wells.html">explained <em>Bloomberg</em></a>. “Trade-secret exemptions block information on more than five ingredients for every well in Texas, undermining the statute’s purpose of informing people about chemicals that are hauled through their communities and injected thousands of feet beneath their homes and farms.”</p>
<p>For close observers of this issue, it's no surprise that the <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-30/frack-secrets-by-thousands-keep-u-s-clueless-on-wells.html">model bills contain “truck-sized” loopholes</a>. </p>
<p>“A close reading of the bill…reveals loopholes that would allow energy companies to withhold the names of certain fluid contents, for reasons including that they have been deemed trade secrets,” <em>The New York Times</em> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/us/alec-a-tax-exempt-group-mixes-legislators-and-lobbyists.html">explained back in April</a>.</p>
<h3>
Disclosure Goes Through FracFocus, <span class="caps">PR</span> Front For Oil and Gas Industry</h3>
<p>The model bill that's passed in four states so far mandates that fracking chemical fluid disclosure be conducted by <em><a href="http://fracfocus.org/">FracFocus</a>, </em>which recently celebrated its one-year anniversary, claiming it has produced chemical data on over 15,000 fracked wells in a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSKIxTzVKzY">promotional video</a>. </p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-video-blog field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="media-youtube-outer-wrapper" id="media-youtube-1" style="width: 480px; height: 360px;">
<div class="media-youtube-preview-wrapper" id="media_youtube_SSKIxTzVKzY_1">
<object width="480" height="360">
<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/SSKIxTzVKzY?version=3"></param>
<param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param>
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</object> </div>
</div>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-text-after-video field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The reality is far more messy, as reported in an <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-14/fracking-hazards-obscured-in-failure-to-disclose-wells.html">August investigation</a> by <em>Bloomberg</em>. </p>
<p>“Energy companies failed to list more than two out of every five fracked wells in eight <span class="caps">U.S.</span> states from April 11, 2011, when FracFocus began operating, through the end of last year,” <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-14/fracking-hazards-obscured-in-failure-to-disclose-wells.html">wrote <em>Bloomberg</em></a>. “The gaps reveal shortcomings in the voluntary approach to transparency on the site, which has received funding from oil and gas trade groups and $1.5 million from the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> Department of Energy.”</p>
<p>This moved <span class="caps">U.S.</span> Representative Diana DeGette (D-<span class="caps">CO</span>) to say that <em>FracFocus</em> and the model bills it would soon be a part of make a mockery of the term “disclosure.”</p>
<p>“FracFocus is just a fig leaf for the industry to be able to say they’re doing something in terms of disclosure,” she said.</p>
<p>“Fig leaf” is one way of putting it.</p>
<p>Another way of putting it is “public relations ploy.” As Dory Hippauf of <a href="http://shaleshockmedia.org/"><em>ShaleShock Media</em></a> recently revealed in an article titled “<a href="http://blog.shaleshockmedia.org/2012/11/30/fracunfocused/">FracUNfocusED</a>,” <em>FracFocus</em> is actually a <span class="caps">PR</span> front for the oil and gas industry.</p>
<p>Hippauf revealed that <a href="http://blog.shaleshockmedia.org/2012/11/30/fracunfocused/"><em>FracFocus</em>' domain is registered by Brothers <span class="amp">&amp;</span> Company</a>, a public relations firm whose <a href="http://www.broco.com/work/#filter-client-energy">clients</a> include America’s Natural Gas Alliance, Chesapeake Energy, and <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Clean_Skies_Foundation">American Clean Skies Foundation</a> - a front group for Chesapeake Energy. </p>
<p>Given the situation, it's not surprising then that “companies claimed trade secrets or otherwise failed to identify the chemicals they used about 22 percent of the time,” <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-30/frack-secrets-by-thousands-keep-u-s-clueless-on-wells.html">according to <em>Bloomberg</em>'s analysis</a> of <em>FracFocus</em> data for 18 states.</p>
<p>Put another way, the ExxonMobil's bill has done exactly what it set out to do: business as usual for the oil and gas industry.</p>
<p><strong>Image Credit</strong>: <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-40948924/stock-photo-confidential-information-with-loads-of-money-involved-nda-non-disclosure-agreement.html?src=csl_recent_image-2">ShutterStock</a> | <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-413512p1.html">billyhoiler</a></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8990">CSG</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6853">ALEC</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/11272">Obama Administration&#039;s Department of Energy Fracking Subcommittee</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/public-relations">Public Relations</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5086">PR</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/the-new-york-times">The New York Times</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/917">texas</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2187">Colorado</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1209">Illinois</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6752">Front Group</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/propaganda">propaganda</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/11273">Brothers &amp; Company</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6927">American Clean Skies Foundation</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6013">America&#039;s Natural Gas Alliance</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/11274">ShaleShock Media</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6356">Chesapeake Energy</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6907">american legislative exchange council</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2625">pennsylvania</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/11275">FracFocus</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8991">Council of State Governments</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5137">hydraulic fracturing</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5133">fracking</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/11276">Diana DeGette</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5565">shale gas</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7277">shale oil</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6344">unconventional gas</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8931">unconventional oil</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2800">natural gas</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1493">bloomberg</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/11277">U.S. Department of Energy</a></div></div></div>Tue, 04 Dec 2012 22:41:12 +0000Steve Horn6721 at http://www.desmogblog.comBreaking: SUNY Buffalo Shuts "Frackademia" Center, Shale Resources and Society Institutehttp://www.desmogblog.com/2012/11/19/breaking-news-suny-buffalo-ends-frackademia-center-shale-resources-and-society-institute
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/Clark_Hall_on_UB%27s_South_Campus.jpg?itok=cM4nik_U" width="200" height="150" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Today, <span class="caps">SUNY</span> Buffalo <a href="http://www.buffalo.edu/news/13822">closed the doors</a> of its Shale Resources and Society Institute (<span class="caps">SRSI</span>), what we at DeSmog have described as an epicenter for “<a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2012/09/19/frackademia-the-brewing-suny-buffalo-shale-resources-society-institute-storm">frackademia</a>” and a public relations front for the oil and gas industry to promote hydraulic fracturing (“<a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/fracking-the-future/">fracking</a>”) under the guise of scientific legitimacy that a university offers.</p>
<p>A letter from <span class="caps">SUNY</span> Buffalo President Satish K. Tripathi said that the nail in the coffin for <span class="caps">SRSI</span> was what we coined its “<a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/new-shill-gas-study-published-suny-buffalo-institute-heavy-industry-ties">shill gas study</a>,” the first paper published by <span class="caps">SRSI</span>. All of the co-authors of this paper had direct ties to the oil and gas industry, as did four out of five of its peer reviewers.</p>
<p>Tripathi explained his rationale behind slamming the door shut on <span class="caps">SRSI</span>, <a href="http://www.buffalo.edu/news/13820">writing</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The university upholds academic freedom as a core principle of our institutional mission. With that being said, academic freedom carries with it inherent responsibilities…The May 15, 2012 report…led to allegations questioning whether historical financial interests influenced the authors' conclusions. The fundamental source of controversy revolves around clarity and substantiation of conclusions. Every faculty member has a responsibility to ensure that conclusions in technical reports or papers are unambiguous and supported by the presented data. It is imperative that our faculty members adhere to rigorous standards of academic integrity, intellectual honesty, transparency, and the highest ethical conduct in their work.</p>
<p>Because of these collective concerns, I have decided to close the Shale Resources and Society Institute.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Tripathi's announcement comes shortly before the <a href="http://www.suny.edu/Board_of_Trustees/meetingschedule.cfm">upcoming <span class="caps">SUNY</span> Board of Trustees meeting</a> set to take place in Albany, <span class="caps">NY</span> on Dec. 3-4. </p>
<p><em>New Yorkers Against Fracking</em> <a href="http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/166914/suny-buffalo-buries-controversial-shale-institute/">proclaimed the announcement</a> a “victory for real science over junk science peddled by the gas industry.” </p>
<!--break-->
<p><strong>Update</strong>: <em>Public Accountability Initiative</em>, which has written many reports on <span class="caps">SRSI</span>, <a href="http://public-accountability.org/2012/11/pai-statement-on-ubs-closing-of-shale-institute/">issued this statement</a> from its Executive Director, Kevin Connor:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The University at Buffalo took an important stand for principles of academic integrity and transparency with its decision to shutter the Shale Institute today. The decision sends a strong message to the oil and gas industry: <span class="caps">SUNY</span> is not for sale. Sham science that peddles industry myths has no place in the fracking debate, and it does not deserve the imprimatur of the University at Buffalo or that of any other credible academic institution. This is a major victory for faculty, students, staff, and <span class="caps">SUNY</span> trustees who led the fight against this corporate takeover.</p>
<p>The problem of “frackademia” extends far beyond Buffalo, and the Shale Institute is now a cautionary tale for universities around the country passing off industry-sponsored propaganda as academic research, from Penn State to the University of Texas and beyond. This is an important chapter in a much larger fight for academic integrity and transparency.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Photo Credit</strong>: Davidhar | <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Clark_Hall_on_UB%27s_South_Campus.jpg"><em>Wikimedia Commons</em></a></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9154">Shale Resources and Society Institute</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10484">Academic Freedom</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10646">higher education</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/11076">corporatized university</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10828">Corporate University</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10271">University Inc.</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5401">Marcellus shale</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/911">new york</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9718">Shill Gas Study</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9152">Shill Gas</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10826">Satish K. Tripathi</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/public-relations">Public Relations</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5086">PR</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/propaganda">propaganda</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9238">SUNY Buffalo</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/11077">SUNY Board of Trustees</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5137">hydraulic fracturing</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9411">New Yorkers Against Fracking</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10274">SRSI</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5133">fracking</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10232">Frackademia</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5565">shale gas</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7277">shale oil</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2800">natural gas</a></div></div></div>Mon, 19 Nov 2012 21:22:46 +0000Steve Horn6672 at http://www.desmogblog.comChesapeake Energy Tied to Mansfield, OH Bill of Rights Astroturf Attackhttp://www.desmogblog.com/2012/11/05/chesapeake-energy-tied-to-mansfield-oh-community-bill-of-rights-astroturf-attack
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/shutterstock_50850421%20%281%29.jpg?itok=bdh703IQ" width="200" height="300" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The oil and gas industry is waging an <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2012/11/01/tea-party-fracking-industry-astroturf-campaign-mansfield-oh-community-bill-of-rights-referendum">11th hour astroturf campaign</a> in Mansfield, <span class="caps">OH</span> in an attempt to defeat the “<a href="http://celdf.org/mansfield-ohio-first-community-in-state-to-submit-community-bill-of-rights-to-voters">Community Bill of Rights</a>“ referendum. </p>
<p>A “yes” vote would, in effect, prohibit <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/fracking-the-future/">hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”)</a> injection wells in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansfield,_Ohio">Mansfield</a>, a city of 48,000 located in the heart of the <a href="http://www.eia.gov/oil_gas/rpd/shale_gas.pdf">Utica Shale basin</a> between Cleveland and Columbus. </p>
<p>In March 2012, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (<span class="caps">ODNR</span>) conducted a <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2012/03/shale_gas_drilling_caused_smal.html">study linking the 12 earthquakes that have occurred in Youngstown, <span class="caps">OH</span></a> to injection wells located in the city. Further, <a href="http://www.propublica.org/series/injection-wells">recent investigative reports</a> by <em>ProPublica</em> show that these new dumping grounds - with a staggering 150,000 injection wells in 33 states and 10 trillion gallons of toxic fluid underground - are a public health hazard in the making.</p>
<p>And yet, for the most part, hardly anyone is talking about it.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.preferredfluidsmanagement.com/">Preferred Fluids Management <span class="caps">LLC</span></a> is the upstart business that <a href="http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/assets/pdf/B718354915.PDF">received two well injection permits</a> from the <span class="caps">ODNR</span> in the spring of 2011 that motivated the “Bill of Rights” initiative. Industry front groups ranging from <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/%E2%80%98energy-depth%E2%80%99-was-created-major-oil-and-gas-companies-according-industry-memo"><em>Energy in Depth</em></a> (<span class="caps">EID</span>), <i>Energy Citizens</i>, <em>Ohio Energy Resource Alliance</em> and “<strong><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2012/11/01/tea-party-fracking-industry-astroturf-campaign-mansfield-oh-community-bill-of-rights-referendum">Mansfielders for Jobs</a></strong>” are leading the charge in the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Astroturf">astroturf</a> campaign to defeat it.</p>
<p>Why, though, has the fracking industry put so much time and effort into the placement of a measly two injection wells in Mansfield for this relatively unheard of <span class="caps">LLC</span>? <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:T_oLVCh695cJ:www.linkedin.com/pub/michael-chadsey/4/562/275+&amp;cd=1&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;gl=us">Michael Chadsey</a> of <em><span class="caps">EID</span> Ohio</em> explained the importance of the waste dumping grounds at a forum on Jan. 30, 2012, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vETyR63Fpc4">stating</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If for some reason they just said, you know, we're going to stop this process, eventually the tanks that are on-site are going to get filled up. And then all the drilling pads are going to have to shut down and all of the truck drivers will have to stop.</p>
<p>So…this is the part of the process that is the end part of the process. When you shut down the end, you can't even start or continue because you have to have all the pieces of the puzzle to make this thing move. Everything is interconnected.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There's that and then there's the fact that Preferred Fluids Management <span class="caps">LLC</span> isn't merely a “new kid on the block.” <a href="http://www.preferredfluidsmanagement.com/index.php?/about-us/">Owned and founded by Steven Mobley</a>, the business has a story of its own worthy of sharing, as it's closely connected to gas industry powerhouse, <strong>Chesapeake Energy</strong>.</p>
<!--break-->
<h3>
Preferred Fluids Management <span class="caps">LLC</span>: A Quick Primer </h3>
<p>According to documents on the Ohio Secretary of State's Division of Corporations website, Preferred Fluids Management was <a href="http://www2.sos.state.oh.us/pls/bsqry/f?p=100:7:0::NO:7:P7_CHARTER_NUM:1913473">originally incorporated in February 2010</a>. Since then, fracking waste injection wells have been in the eye of the backlash storm from grassroots activists, environmental <span class="caps">NGO</span>s, lawyers, and both federal- and state-level regulators nationwide. </p>
<p>In Ohio, this ongoing backlash motivated Preferred Fluids to <a href="http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20120626/NEWS01/120626008/Plan-fracking-waste-wells-withdrawn">withdraw its Mansfield well permits on June 26, 2012</a>.</p>
<p>“While this withdrawal appears to be a city victory over a company that sought to injection toxic poison into our soil, the city must remain vigilant against other companies,” <a href="http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20120626/NEWS01/120626008/Plan-fracking-waste-wells-withdrawn">Mansfield Mayor Tim Theaker and Law Director John Spon declared</a>.</p>
<p>Roughly three weeks later, Preferred Fluids <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Preferred%20Fluids%20Complaint.pdf">responded by filing a federal lawsuit in the Northern District Court of Ohio</a>, stating that Mansfield “has no right under Ohio law to regulate the injection wells,” <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2012/09/mansfield_leads_legal_fight_ag.html">according to the <em>Cleveland Plain Dealer</em></a>.<i> </i>In response to the lawsuit, on Sept. 9 the Mansfield City Council <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2012/09/mansfield_leads_legal_fight_ag.html">voted to put the “Community Bill of Rights” referendum</a> on the ballot for the Nov. 6 election.</p>
<p>The crazy set of twists and turns continued, when on Oct. 19, perhaps seeing that it'd been one-upped by the citizens of Mansfield, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Mansfield.dismissal.pdf">Preferred Fluids decided</a> to <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Mansfield.dismissal.2.pdf">drop its federal lawsuit</a>. </p>
<p>“The need to adopt the charter amendment is even greater because it's very possible that this industry is just regrouping to commence another assault,” Mansfield Law Director John Spon <a href="http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20121019/NEWS01/210190301/Company-drops-suit-against-Mansfield">told the <em>Mansfield News Journal</em></a>, foreshadowing the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2012/11/01/tea-party-fracking-industry-astroturf-campaign-mansfield-oh-community-bill-of-rights-referendum">astroturf battle citizens and grassroots activists are facing in Mansfield</a>.</p>
<p>On Oct 5, 2011 Preferred Fluids Management owner Steven Mobley also incorporated a new company, <strong><a href="http://www2.sos.state.oh.us/reports/rwservlet?imgc&amp;Din=201131101378">Buckeye Brine <span class="caps">LLC</span></a></strong>, according to the Ohio Department of State's Division of Corporations. “It seeks to be a positive force in the communities in which it operates, buying and hiring locally whenever possible, with a strong commitment to local community causes,” <a href="http://www.buckeyebrine.com/about-us.html">according to Buckeye Brine's website</a>.</p>
<p>The <em>Coshocton Tribune</em> <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Oil%20Boom%20Draws%20Buckeye%20Brine.pdf">explained</a> that, like Mobley's Preferred Fluids Management proposal in Mansfield, the plan is to place two injection wells in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coshocton,_Ohio">Coshocton</a>, a city of just over 11,000 southeast of Mansfield.<br /><br />
Buckeye Brine says it will only bring<a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Oil%20Boom%20Draws%20Buckeye%20Brine.pdf"> five jobs to Coshocton</a> and has the capacity to process 4,000 to 5,000 barrels of waste fluids a day, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Oil%20Boom%20Draws%20Buckeye%20Brine.pdf">according to the <em>Tribune</em></a>.</p>
<h3>
Mobley Family Connection to Chesapeake, Injection Wells, Earthquakes</h3>
<p>The unanswered question remains on the table: who is Steven Mobley?</p>
<p>Steven Mobley's brother is David Mobley, who <a href="http://www.manta.com/c/mmzpxwx/chesapeake-energy-corp">currently serve as Chief Adminstrative Officer </a>and <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Chesapeake%20Energy%20Mid-Year%202009%20FEC%20Filing.pdf" style="color: rgb(255, 205, 51); ">formerly served as Land Manager</a> of Chesapeake Operating Inc., a subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy.</p>
<p>Steven and David were both formerly partial co-owners of their family business, <a href="http://www.secinfo.com/dVut2.6n8k.c.htm">Mobley Environmental Services</a>, according to <em>Securities and Exchange Commission</em> (<span class="caps">SEC</span>) forms. <em>Businessweek</em>'s profile for <a href="http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=322418">Mobley Environmental Services</a> reads,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In May 1997, Mobley Environmental Services, Inc. sold its only operating division, waste management services, to United States Filter Corporation…It also provided oilfield services, including transporting, marketing, storing, and disposing of various liquid materials used or produced as waste throughout the lifecycle of oil and gas wells.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In 1999, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/23/business/vivendi-of-france-acquiring-us-filter.html">Vivendi Environnement aquired United States Filter Corporation for $6.2 billion</a>. Vivendi Environnement is now known as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veolia_Environnement">Veolia Environnement</a> and remains <a href="http://www.vwsoilandgas.com/en/">in the oil and gas industry wastewater treatment sector</a>. Facing hard financial times in 2004, <a href="http://www.waterindustry.org/New%20Projects/siemens-1.htm">Veolia sold <span class="caps">US</span> Filter for $1 billion</a> to the German corporation, Siemens, which is <a href="http://www.water.siemens.com/en/oil-gas/Pages/default.aspx">also in the oil and gas industry wastewater treatment business</a>.</p>
<p>The frightening and growing nexus between the water privatization industry, the shale gas industry, and the wastewater treatment industry has been pointed out in reports authored by both the <a href="http://coloradoindependent.com/118667/private-water-companies-lobby-for-more-fracking"><em>Colorado Independent</em></a> and <a href="http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/factsheet/the-private-water-industrys-stake-in-shale-gas-development/"><em>Food and Water Watch</em></a>. </p>
<p>Like Mobley Environmental Services and its predecessors - and like Preferred Fluids Management and Buckeye Brine - Chesapeake Operating is also in the fracking wastewater injection business, notorious for its activity in Arkansas.</p>
<p>Paralleling Ohio, Arkansas, home of the <a href="http://oilshalegas.com/fayettevilleshale.html">Fayetteville Shale basin</a>, has seen <a href="http://truth-out.org/news/item/2380:fracking-operations-cause-thousands-of-earthquakes-in-arkansas">over 1,200 waste injection well-related earthquakes</a>, leading the <a href="http://truth-out.org/news/item/2380:fracking-operations-cause-thousands-of-earthquakes-in-arkansas">Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission to place a ban on injection wells</a> in July 2011 in the area where the earthquakes were most prevalent, though there are still <a href="http://www.aogc.state.ar.us/images/General%20Rule%20H-1%20Fault%20Map.pdf">wells in other areas across the state</a>. A February 2011 magnitude <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/27/natural-gas-arkansas-commission-shut-down-wells_n_911541.html">4.7 earthquake</a> near Greenbrier, “was the most powerful to hit the state in 35 years,” according to the Associated Press.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/15/arkansas-earthquakes-2011-fracking_n_835868.html"><em><span class="caps">AP</span></em> further explained</a> that Chesapeake Energy was one of the main well injection operating culprits: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The two injection wells are used to dispose of wastewater from natural-gas production. One is owned by Chesapeake Energy, and the other by Clarita Operating. They agreed March 4 to temporarily cease injection operations at the request of the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The barrage of earthquakes served as a motivation for an ongoing <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/20/idUS194526+20-May-2011+GNW20110520">class action lawsuit filed by Emerson Poynter <span class="caps">LLP</span> in May 2011</a> at the federal-level Faulkner County Circuit Court in Conway, <span class="caps">AR</span> against Chesapeake Operating, as well as <span class="caps">BHP</span> Billiton, Petroleum Americas Inc., and Clarita Operating <span class="caps">LLC</span>. </p>
<p>In a press release, Emerson Poynter <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/20/idUS194526+20-May-2011+GNW20110520">explained it is suing for</a> “millions of dollars in damages for property damage, loss of fair market value in real estate, emotional distress, and damages related to the purchase of earthquake insurance.”</p>
<p>Since the closure of the two injection wells, the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/15/arkansas-earthquakes-2011-fracking_n_835868.html">number of earthquakes occuring in the area has fallen dramatically</a>, according to the Arkansas Geological Survey.</p>
<p>Chesapeake is closely tethered to or is a member of all of the front groups waging the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2012/11/01/tea-party-fracking-industry-astroturf-campaign-mansfield-oh-community-bill-of-rights-referendum">gas industry's astroturf campaign in Mansfield</a>, except for the shadowy “Mansfielders for Jobs,” including <em><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Chesapeake_Energy">Energy in Depth</a></em>, <a href="http://www.api.org/GlobalItems/GlobalHeaderPages/Membership/API-Member-Companies.aspx"><em>American Petroleum Institute</em></a>, the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Petroleum_Institute#Energy_Forums"><em>Buckeye Energy Forum</em></a> (<span class="caps">API</span> front group), and the <a href="http://www.ohioenergyresource.org/"><em>Ohio Energy Resource Alliance </em></a>(<span class="caps">OERA</span>).</p>
<p><span class="caps">OERA</span> is an <span class="caps">API</span> front group led by the former head of the Koch-funded <em><a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/campaigns/global-warming-and-energy/polluterwatch/koch-industries/americans-for-prosperity-found/">Americans for Prosperity</a> Ohio</em>, <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ar-tFMMEjiwJ:www.linkedin.com/pub/rebecca-simpson-heimlich/5/263/77a+&amp;cd=1&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;gl=us">Rebecca Heimlich</a>, who now also serves as Campaign Manager for <span class="caps">API</span> Ohio. <span class="caps">OERA</span>'s <a href="http://www.eidohio.org/tag/ohio-energy-resource-alliance/">members include</a> <em><span class="caps">EID</span> Ohio</em>, <em><span class="caps">API</span></em>, the <em>Ohio Oil <span class="amp">&amp;</span> Gas Association</em> (<span class="caps">OOGA</span>), and <em>America’s Natural Gas Alliance</em>, among others. Chesapeake is also a member of <a href="http://ooga.org/about-us/corporate-members/"><span class="caps">OOGA</span></a> and <a href="http://staging.anga.us/about-us/our-members"><span class="caps">ANGA</span></a>.</p>
<h3>
Big Picture: Chesapeake's Big Plans in the Utica Shale</h3>
<p>Cheseapeake, a <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-big-fracking-bubble-the-scam-behind-the-gas-boom-20120301">company currently in deep financial straits</a>, sees the Utica Shale basin as a potential saving grace, with <em>Forbes</em> saying that the Utica is “<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2012/07/16/utica-shale-play-is-crucial-for-chesapeakes-future/%5C">crucial for Cheseapeake's future</a>” in a July article. </p>
<p>In a recent call with investors, controversial <span class="caps">CEO</span> Aubrey McClendon said he's <a href="http://www.cantonrep.com/newsnow/x481715524/Chesapeake-CEO-thrilled-with-Utica-shale">“thrilled” with its potential</a>. He also said that <a href="http://www.cantonrep.com/newsnow/x481715524/Chesapeake-CEO-thrilled-with-Utica-shale">Chesapeake is particularly focused</a> on production in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbiana_County,_Ohio">Columbiana</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carroll_County,_Ohio">Carroll</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_County,_Ohio">Harrison</a> counties. </p>
<p>These <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=richland+county+ohio+to+columbiana+county+ohio&amp;saddr=richland+county+ohio&amp;daddr=columbiana+county+ohio&amp;hl=en&amp;ll=40.809652,-81.677856&amp;spn=1.124634,2.831726&amp;t=h&amp;z=9&amp;geocode=FcDlbQIdyN0U-ymx93eDkOs5iDEaqRbNfu7hJA%3BFfJobgIdrJwv-ynd8B4kXKk2iDFYnfwnQ6uNLQ">counties</a> <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Harrison+County,+Ohio&amp;daddr=richland+county,+ohio&amp;gl=us&amp;panel=1&amp;fb=1&amp;dirflg=d&amp;geocode=FeByZwIdiDYq-ykVzjkx_l82iDFJKLqP6cexrA%3BFcDlbQIdyN0U-ymx93eDkOs5iDEaqRbNfu7hJA&amp;t=h&amp;z=9">are</a> <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Carroll+County,+Ohio+to+richland+county+ohio&amp;saddr=Carroll+County,+Ohio&amp;daddr=richland+county+ohio&amp;hl=en&amp;t=h&amp;z=9&amp;geocode=FWF7agId9uIq-ylduTWhNOo2iDGYCqv0tcbEWw%3BFcDlbQIdyN0U-ymx93eDkOs5iDEaqRbNfu7hJA">all</a> <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=from:+Harrison+County,+Ohio+to:+coshocton+county,+ohio&amp;saddr=Harrison+County,+Ohio&amp;daddr=coshocton+county,+ohio&amp;hl=en&amp;sll=43.084993,-89.40642&amp;sspn=0.271303,0.707932&amp;geocode=FeByZwIdiDYq-ykVzjkx_l82iDFJKLqP6cexrA%3BFa6GZgIdNn0d-ymtbI3wWpk3iDGef_QrnNoWcQ&amp;t=h&amp;z=10">within</a> <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=from:+Carroll+County,+Ohio+to:+coshocton+county,+ohio&amp;saddr=Carroll+County,+Ohio&amp;daddr=coshocton+county,+ohio&amp;hl=en&amp;sll=43.084993,-89.40642&amp;sspn=0.271303,0.707932&amp;geocode=FWF7agId9uIq-ylduTWhNOo2iDGYCqv0tcbEWw%3BFa6GZgIdNn0d-ymtbI3wWpk3iDGef_QrnNoWcQ&amp;t=h&amp;z=10">50-100 miles</a> of Richland and Coshocton counties, the two counties where Preferred Fluid Management <span class="caps">LLC</span>'s and Buckeye Brine <span class="caps">LLC</span>'s operations are both set to be located, respectively. That makes Richland and Coshocton easily accessible dumping grounds for Chesapeake's toxic waste.</p>
<p>The fracking waste injection business is a burgeoning and lucrative one, but with it comes huge costs that go above and beyond earthquakes alone. </p>
<p>“In 10 to 100 years we are going to find out that most of our groundwater is polluted,” Mario Salazar, an engineer who worked for 25 years at the <span class="caps">EPA</span>'s underground injection program <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/injection-wells-the-poison-beneath-us">told <em>ProPublica</em></a>. “A lot of people are going to get sick, and a lot of people may die.”</p>
<p>Grassroots activists have pledged to fight this one tooth and nail as the high stakes battle goes down to the wire. </p>
<p>“The battle lines are being drawn between the greed of the oil and gas industry and the rights of individuals at the local level, Bill Baker, an organizer for <em>Frack Free Ohio</em> told <em>DeSmogBlog </em>in an interview. “Powerful organizations with no vested interest in the Mansfield community, other than to turn it into a toxic waste dump, are spending millions in advertising to convince citizens to vote 'no' on the Bill of Rights.”</p>
<p><strong>Photo Credit</strong>: <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-488734p1.html">bumihills</a> | <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-50850421/stock-photo-trojan-horse-troy.html?src=csl_recent_image-7">ShutterStock</a></p>
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class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10327">OH</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10871">Mansfield OH</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10895">Mansfield Community Bill of Rights</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10896">Mansfield OH Community Bill of Rights</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10897">Mansfield OH Bill of Rights</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10898">Mansfield Ohio Bill of Rights</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10899">Steven Mobley Preferred Fluids Management</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10900">Preferred Fluids Management LLC</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10901">Buckeye Brine LLC</a></div></div></div>Tue, 06 Nov 2012 20:40:26 +0000Steve Horn6637 at http://www.desmogblog.comExclusive: Tea Party, Fracking Industry Launch Astroturf Campaign Against Mansfield, OH Community Bill of Rights Referendumhttp://www.desmogblog.com/2012/11/01/tea-party-fracking-industry-astroturf-campaign-mansfield-oh-community-bill-of-rights-referendum
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/Mansfielders%20for%20Jobs_0.png?itok=eX4kQqdx" width="200" height="90" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Ohio is referred to as a “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_state">battleground state</a>” due to its status as a “swing state” in presidential elections. But another important battle is brewing in the Buckeye State, also set to be settled in the voting booth.</p>
<p>This battle centers around a “<a href="http://celdf.org/mansfield-ohio-first-community-in-state-to-submit-community-bill-of-rights-to-voters">Community Bill of Rights</a>” referendum in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansfield,_Ohio">Mansfield, <span class="caps">OH</span></a> and will be voted on in a simple “yes/no” manner. Mansfield is a city with roughly 48,000 citizens located 80 miles southwest of Cleveland and 66 miles northeast of Columbus, right in the heart of the <a href="http://www.eia.gov/oil_gas/rpd/shale_gas.pdf">Utica Shale basin</a>. </p>
<p>Eric Belcastro, the Pennsylvania Organizer for the <em>Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund</em> (<span class="caps">CELDF</span>), <a href="http://celdf.org/mansfield-ohio-first-community-in-state-to-submit-community-bill-of-rights-to-voters">explained the rationale behind the “Bill of Rights” push in a blog post</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Faced with the permitting of two 5,000 foot deep injection wells in Mansfield by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (<span class="caps">ODNR</span>)…[t]he amendment would drive a community Bill of Rights into Mansfield's charter and then prohibit the injection of fracking wastewater on grounds that such prohibition is necessary to secure and protect those community rights. The amendment also recognizes corporate “rights” as subordinate to the rights of the people of Mansfield, as well as recognizing the rights of residents, natural communities, and ecosystems to clean air and water.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The <span class="caps">ODNR</span>, in a study published in March 2012, <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2012/03/shale_gas_drilling_caused_smal.html">linked the 12 earthquakes that have occured in Youngstown, Ohio to injection wells</a> located in the city. </p>
<p>Though the “Bill of Rights” <a href="http://celdf.org/mansfield-ohio-first-community-in-state-to-submit-community-bill-of-rights-to-voters">has the full support of the City Council and the Law Director</a>, as well as the city's newspaper, the <a href="http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20121016/OPINION01/210160321/Environmental-bill-rights-needed"><em>Mansfield News Journal</em></a>, one faction in particular isn't such a big fan of the Bill of Rights: the oil and gas industry. In response to the upcoming referrendum vote, the industry has launched an 11th hour <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Astroturf">astroturf</a> campaign to “<a href="http://desmogblog.com/gas-fracking-industry-using-military-psychological-warfare-tactics-and-personnel-u-s-communities">win hearts and minds</a>” of those voters still on the fence as it pertains to the “Bill of Rights” in the week before the election. </p>
<p><em>DeSmogBlog</em> has obtained images of flyers distributed via a well-coordinated direct mail campaign conducted by the oil and gas industry in Mansfield, made public here for the first time in an exclusive investigation.</p>
<!--break-->
<h3>
“Mansfielders for Jobs,” Front Group, Leads Astroturf Charge</h3>
<p>At the metaphorical 11th hour of the Mansfield referendum campaign, literally in the week before the vote is set to take place, a new group rose out of the dust called “Mansfielders for Jobs.” The group isn't traceable via LexisNexis or Factiva and has only been written about by the <em>Mansfield News Journal</em> on three occasions. </p>
<p>An Oct. 30 <em>News Journal </em>article <a href="http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20121030/NEWS03/310300012/Anti-bill-rights-flyers-dominate-public-forum">explains</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A group called Mansfielders for Jobs, which has not filed any campaign spending forms locally with the Richland County Board of Elections, has distributed a flyer [obtained by <em>DeSmog</em>] arguing the charter amendment would <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Mansfielders%20for%20Jobs%20Ad.jpg">do nothing to improve the environment</a>, and contains “vague wording” that would open the door for costly lawsuits that could hurt local small businesses.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Two days later, the <em>Journal</em> published a follow-up piece, <a href="http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20121101/NEWS03/311010004?odyssey=mod%7Cmostcom">further highlighting </a>that <i>Mansfielders for Jobs</i> distributed a flyer that “lists no contact address and no campaign treasurer.” That flyer obtained by <em>DeSmog</em> says the “Bill of Rights” will “<a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/blogimages/Mansfielders%20for%20Jobs_0.png">hurt job creation in our city</a>.” </p>
<p>The follow-up piece offers one key hint at who the founders of the upstart “Mansfielders for Jobs” might be - <a href="http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20121101/NEWS03/311010004?odyssey=mod%7Cmostcom">it notes that <em>Energy Citizens</em> is another group distributing “vote no” flyers</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Energy_Citizens"><em>Energy Citizens</em></a> is a <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Portal:Front_groups">front group</a> of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Petroleum_Institute">American Petroleum Institute (<span class="caps">API</span>)</a> and a public relations campaign dreamed up by <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Edelman">Edelman</a>, an outfit well-known for, among other things, working as a “<a href="http://www.merchantsofdoubt.org/">merchant of doubt</a>” on behalf of Big Tobacco. That might explain why <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/API%20Ad.jpg"><span class="caps">API</span> has</a> also <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/API%20Newspaper%20Ad.jpeg">spent time and money flyering</a>.</p>
<p>And then there is the <span class="caps">API</span> <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/%E2%80%98energy-depth%E2%80%99-was-created-major-oil-and-gas-companies-according-industry-memo">front group <em>Energy in Depth </em>(<span class="caps">EID</span>)</a>. <a href="http://www.earthworksaction.org/"><em>Earthworks</em></a>' Sharon Wilson, the author of the blog <a href="http://www.texassharon.com/"><em>Texas Sharon</em></a>, refers to <span class="caps">EID</span> as the <a href="http://www.texassharon.com/2012/08/25/energy-in-depth-is-to-fracking-as-joe-camel-is-to-cigarettes/">Joe Camel of fracking</a>, appropriate given <span class="caps">API</span>'s Edelman ties. <em><span class="caps">EID</span> Ohio </em>has gone on an offensive against the prospective “Bill of Rights.”</p>
<p>“The activist organizations furthering these efforts are taking cues from out-of-state organizations that oppose the responsible development of fossil fuels at every turn,” Dan Alfaro, <em><span class="caps">EID</span> Ohio</em>'s spokesman, <a href="http://www.ohio.com/news/local-news/communities-seek-ways-to-override-state-control-of-oil-and-gas-drilling-boom-1.332880">told the <em>Akron Beacon Journal</em></a> on Sept. 8.</p>
<p>Roughly a month later, <a href="http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20121009/NEWS03/210090310/Mansfield-voters-will-decide-city-s-rules-fracking-waste">he told the <em>Mansfield News Journal</em></a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>While this (charter amendment) is being marketed as a homegrown, organic movement coming from local concerned citizens, it is, in fact, a well-funded, coordinated effort being directed from a national organization opposed to the development of fossil fuels at every turn. This proposal … promotes a well-documented agenda under the guise of a local charter.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Two weeks later, <em><span class="caps">EID</span> Ohio </em>chimed in with a blog post written by Anne Carto.</p>
<p>“Clearly, Mansfield needs to be shown facts before making a decision to deter business from coming to the area,” <a href="http://www.eidohio.org/mansfield-law-director-misses-facts-on-injection-wells/">she opined</a>. “As <span class="caps">EID</span> has covered before, Mansfield, Ohio is not in a position to create regulations that will hurt its chance for a better economy.”</p>
<p>Alfaro, <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:RkT9hzAX8gcJ:www.linkedin.com/pub/daniel-alfaro/9/772/712+&amp;cd=2&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;gl=us">according to his LinkedIn</a> profile, formerly served as head of Ballot Access and as Field Representative for Republican John McCain's presidential run in 2008 in Ohio. His colleague Anne Carto, <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:A4ZIiThC1TEJ:www.linkedin.com/pub/anne-carto/50/897/8ba+&amp;cd=1&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;gl=us">according to her LinkedIn</a>, served as a Petitition Circulator in Ohio in the early days of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's run for President.</p>
<h3>
Barbara Walter and the Tea Party Patriots</h3>
<p>The most <a href="http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20121102/NEWS03/311020006?odyssey=mod%7Cmostcom">recent story</a> about the “Bill of Rights” in the <i>Mansfield News Journal </i>revealed that Barbara Walter, <a href="http://rcohgop.com/uploads/2011_RCRP_newsletter1Revised.pdf">head of the Richland County Republican Party</a>, is the head of “Mansfielders for Jobs.” Walter <a href="http://www.wmfd.com/local-news/singlesearchsingle.asp?story=41605">formerly was an organizer</a> for the <em>Mansfield Tea Party Patriots</em>, a stint she held until being offered the Richland County <span class="caps">GOP</span> Chair position.</p>
<p>On January 30, the Mansfield Tea Party Patriots hosted a forum titled, “<a href="http://www.meetup.com/WCO9-12/events/48803182/">Fracking and Injection Wells What Do We Really Know?</a>,” touting the so-called “benefits” of brine injection. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vETyR63Fpc4">three featured speakers</a> were <a href="http://ooga.org/about-us/boards-committees/executive-committee/">David Hill</a>, the Secretary/Treasurer of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association; <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:T_oLVCh695cJ:www.linkedin.com/pub/michael-chadsey/4/562/275+&amp;cd=1&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;gl=us">Michael Chadsey</a> of Energy in Depth Ohio and <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ar-tFMMEjiwJ:www.linkedin.com/pub/rebecca-simpson-heimlich/5/263/77a+&amp;cd=1&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;gl=us">Rebecca Heimlich</a> of the American Petroleum Institute. Chadsney and Heimlich <a href="http://www.mansfieldteaparty.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=453&amp;Itemid=176">spoke at a forum on the same topic </a>in April <a href="http://www.mansfieldteaparty.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=453&amp;Itemid=176">hosted</a> by the <em style="color: rgb(255, 205, 51); "><a href="http://www.napatriots.com/" style="color: rgb(255, 205, 51); ">New American Patriots</a> </em>in Ashland, <span class="caps">OH</span>, a <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=ashland+oh&amp;daddr=mansfield+oh&amp;hl=en&amp;gl=us&amp;panel=1&amp;fb=1&amp;dirflg=d&amp;geocode=FTybbwIdduwX-ymPkkV8TPs5iDGPJETASM4y7A%3BFXbsbQIdCeoU-ymHEop34uo5iDFWbywU-DoIYw&amp;t=h&amp;z=12">20-minute drive</a> from Mansfield.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.teapartypatriots.org/groups/mansfield-tea-party/edit-profile/"><em>Mansfield Tea Party Patriots</em></a> and <a href="http://www.teapartypatriots.org/groups/new-american-patriots/edit-profile/"><em>New American Patriots</em></a> are both local-level branches of the national-level <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tea_Party_Patriots">Tea Party Patriots</a>, a right wing front group started by <i>FreedomWorks</i> in the summer of 2009, according to a Sept. 2009 investigative report titled “<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20100410052411/http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/30219673/the_lie_machine/print">The Lie Machine</a>” by <em>Rolling Stone</em>'s Tim Dickinson.</p>
<p>Dickinson, in explaining <em>Tea Party Patriot</em>'s origins, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20100410052411/http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/30219673/the_lie_machine/print">wrote</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>After FreedomWorks orchestrated the original Tea Party protests last April, it ostensibly handed over the reins of the movement to a third group, called the Tea Party Patriots. But internal correspondence from the group's private listserv obtained by Rolling Stone makes clear that FreedomWorks is still calling the shots. <em><a href="http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20121102/NEWS03/311020006?odyssey=mod%7Cmostcom"> </a></em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>An offshoot of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Citizens_for_a_Sound_Economy"><em>Citizens for a Sound Economy</em></a>, <em><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Freedomworks">FreedomWorks</a> </em>is the sister of another offshoot, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Americans_for_Prosperity"><em>Americans for Prosperity </em></a>(<span class="caps">AFP</span>). What was once known as <em>Citizens for a Sound Economy </em>was <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/campaigns/global-warming-and-energy/polluterwatch/koch-industries/citizens-for-a-sound-economy/">heavily funded by the Koch Brothers</a> and today <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/campaigns/global-warming-and-energy/polluterwatch/koch-industries/americans-for-prosperity-found/"><span class="caps">AFP</span> is still funded by the Kochs</a>. Frank Rich, former columnist for <em>The New York Times</em> wrote that “FreedomWorks received $12 million of its own from Koch family foundations” in an <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/opinion/29rich.html?_r=0">August 2010 article</a>.</p>
<p>It's unsurprising then, that before her current stint at <span class="caps">API</span>, Heimlich <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ar-tFMMEjiwJ:www.linkedin.com/pub/rebecca-simpson-heimlich/5/263/77a+&amp;cd=1&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;gl=us">served as <span class="caps">AFP</span>'s Ohio Director from December 2009-November 2011</a>.</p>
<p>When asked in an interview with <em>DeSmogBlog</em> where the idea and money for “Mansfielders for Jobs” originated from and whether or not it was an actual grassroots organization, Walter would not comment, only <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/%2B14197563352%20on%202012-11-02%20at%2014.08.mov">stating</a>, “I don't know the exact date [of origin of the group], but my husband and I just feel strongly that this is bad legislation.”</p>
<p>Walter <a href="http://www.followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/contributor.phtml?d=1004668897">gave</a> $6,025 <a href="http://www.followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/contributor.phtml?d=1004666890">to Republican Gov. John Kasich</a> in the run-up to his 2010 electoral victory, according to the <em>National Institute on Money in State Politics</em>' campaign finance database. Kasich, a <a href="http://www.alec.org/about-alec/history/">formative member</a> of the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/6907">American Legislative Exchange Council</a> (<span class="caps">ALEC</span>) and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heartland_with_John_Kasich">former Fox News show host</a>, received <a href="http://www.followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/contributor_details.phtml?c=117145&amp;i=33">over $332,000</a> from the oil and gas industry during his 2010 race.</p>
<h3>
History Repeating Itself </h3>
<p>This isn't the first time the oil and gas industry has deployed its astroturf batallion to fight back against a local ordinance at the 11th hour. </p>
<p>One year ago, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/consumer-energy-alliance-front-group-exposed-tyee-and-salon"><em>Consumer Energy Alliance</em></a> (<span class="caps">CEA</span>) waged an astroturf campaign to defeat the hotly contested fracking ban ordinance in Peters Township, <span class="caps">PA</span>. <span class="caps">CEA</span> - an <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/consumer-energy-alliance-front-group-exposed-tyee-and-salon">oil and gas industry front group</a> - came out on the winning side of this one, a testimony to the effectiveness of its slick public relations campaigns. </p>
<p>The <em>Pittsburgh Post-Gazette</em> <a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/marcellusshale/election-showed-frackings-key-role-in-region-323689/">summarized the situation in Peters Township a November 2011 story</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Right up to Election Day, Peters residents were receiving sleek fliers in the mail encouraging them to vote against a referendum to ban gas drilling in the Washington County community.</p>
<p>The mailers weren't coming from local opposition, but from Houston-based industry group Consumer Energy Alliance. </p>
</blockquote>
<p><span class="caps">CEA</span>'s 2012 <a href="http://consumerenergyalliance.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/CEA-Annual-Report-2012.pdf">annual report</a> lists the 2012 victory in Peters Township as one of its chief accomplishments.</p>
<h3>
A High Stakes, Life-or-Death Game in Mansfield</h3>
<p>The stakes are higher than most would imagine in Mansfield.</p>
<p><em>ProPublica</em>'s Abrahm Lustgarten pointed out in a June 2012 investigation titled, “<a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/injection-wells-the-poison-beneath-us">Injection Wells: The Poison Beneath Us</a>,” that injection wells are a public health hazard in-the-making of epic proportions that hardly anyone is talking about. There are a staggering 150,000 injection wells in 33 states and 10 trillion gallons of toxic fluid have been dumped in them, <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/trillion-gallon-loophole-lax-rules-for-drillers-that-inject-pollutants">according to <em>ProPublica</em></a>.</p>
<p>“In 10 to 100 years we are going to find out that most of our groundwater is polluted,” Mario Salazar, an engineer who worked for 25 years at the <span class="caps">EPA</span>'s underground injection program <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/injection-wells-the-poison-beneath-us">told <em>ProPublica</em></a>. “A lot of people are going to get sick, and a lot of people may die.”</p>
<p>The battle in Mansfield - literally one of life and death - is on between corporate profits and scientific integrity. </p>
<p><strong>Photo Credit</strong>: Eric Belcastro | <a href="http://celdf.org/">Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund</a></p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10848">EID Ohio</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10849">Eric Belcastro</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10850">Akron Beacon Journal</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6152">Sharon Wilson</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9712">Texas Sharon</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10851">Anne Carto</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10852">Tobacco Strategy</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2398">big tobacco</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1267">big oil</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10853">Tobacco Playbook</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10854">Buckeye State</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10855">Utica Shale basin</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10856">Marcellus Shale basin</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9816">Ohio Department of Natural Resources</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9817">ODNR</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10857">Pittsburgh Post-Gazette</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10858">Erik M. Conway</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/public-relations">Public Relations</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10859">Dan Alfaro</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10860">Joe Camel of fracking</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5086">PR</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/propaganda">propaganda</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5128">Consumer Energy Alliance</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10861">CEA</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/766">john mccain</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2257">mitt romney</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/naomi-oreskes">naomi oreskes</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10862">The Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5081">Merchants of Doubt</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10863">Mansfield Bill of Rights</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10864">Mansfielders for Jobs</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5008">front groups</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4463">astroturf</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10865">Mansfield Ohio</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10866">Mansfield</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6303">Ohio</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10867">Youngstown OH</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10868">Youngstown Ohio</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10869">Ohio Injection Well Earthquakes</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10870">Ohio Fracking Earthquakes</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10871">Mansfield OH</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10327">OH</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5402">Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9800">CELDF</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9569">EID</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5976">Energy In Depth</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/643">American Petroleum Institute</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4499">API</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5156">oil and gas industry</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5565">shale gas</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7277">shale oil</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6344">unconventional gas</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8931">unconventional oil</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5133">fracking</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5137">hydraulic fracturing</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2800">natural gas</a></div></div></div>Sun, 04 Nov 2012 18:16:47 +0000Steve Horn6633 at http://www.desmogblog.comSUNY Buffalo Faculty, Staff Tell Shale Institute to Gohttp://www.desmogblog.com/2012/11/01/suny-buffalo-faculty-staff-tell-shale-institute-go
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/shutterstock_4390306_0.jpeg?itok=bEuShi6l" width="200" height="133" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The battle royale being waged against ”<a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2012/09/19/frackademia-the-brewing-suny-buffalo-shale-resources-society-institute-storm" style="color: rgb(255, 205, 51); ">frackademia</a>” at <span class="caps">SUNY</span> Buffalo has reached a tipping point.</p>
<p>On Oct. 31, the <span class="caps">UB</span> Coalition for Leading Ethically in Academic Research (<span class="caps">UB</span> Clear), a consortium of faculty, students, alumni and other community members, <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/111667009/UB-CLEAR-Report-to-the-SUNY-Trustees-10-28-12">issued a letter and accompanying report</a> declaring that it's time for the increasingly controversial <span class="caps">SUNY</span> Buffalo <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/9154"><strong>Shale Resources and Society Institute</strong></a> (<span class="caps">SRSI</span>) to skedaddle. <span class="caps">UB</span> Clear concluded the report, requested by the <span class="caps">SUNY</span> Board of Trustees and published under the auspices of the office of President Satish K. Tripathi, was a <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2012/10/12/whitewash-suny-buffalo-s-report-regarding-formation-shale-institute">whitewash</a>.</p>
<p><span class="caps">UB</span> Clear <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/111667009/UB-CLEAR-Report-to-the-SUNY-Trustees-10-28-12">explained</a>, </p>
<!--break-->
<blockquote>
<p>On 12 September, the <span class="caps">SUNY</span> Board of Trustees asked <span class="caps">UB</span> for a report on the Shale Institute. On 27 September, <span class="caps">UB</span> President Satish K. Tripathi sent <span class="caps">UB</span> Chancellor Nancy Zimpher <a href="http://www.buffalo.edu/news/pdf/SRSIReport9-27-12.pdf">that report</a>. On 12 October, the Trustees made it public. We believe President Tripathi’s report fails to respond candidly to the Trustees request and the questions posed by New Yorkers since this spring.</p>
<p><span class="caps">UB</span> Clear offered an ultimatum to make all documents related to <span class="caps">SRSI</span> available for public viewing and upped the ante, <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/111667009/UB-CLEAR-Report-to-the-SUNY-Trustees-10-28-12">demanding</a> “that the Shale Institute itself be closed, that its first publication (which we referred to as a “shill gas study”) be formally recalled, and that <span class="caps">UB</span> establish clearer policies for regulating conflicts of interest and public-private partnerships.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Jim Holstun, Professor of English at University at Buffalo and Chair of <span class="caps">UB</span> <span class="caps">CLEAR</span>, stated in a press release encompassing the report:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is time for <span class="caps">UB</span> administrators remember that they are employees of the citizens of New York, not <span class="caps">PR</span> flacks for potential corporate donors with no genuine interest in education and scholarship. Making mistakes isn’t the issue—mistakes are a given for scholars. But doggedly standing by mistakes, as have the authors and <span class="caps">UB</span> administrators, carries us from the realm of rigorous and legitimate scholarship to the realm of public relations and policy advocacy.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a collective body, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2012/10/12/whitewash-suny-buffalo-s-report-regarding-formation-shale-institute">echoing the conclusion reached by <em>DeSmog</em></a> in direct aftermath of the President's Office report, <span class="caps">UB</span> Clear said that the <span class="caps">SUNY</span> Buffalo's higher ups are being “evasive and non-responsive to the Trustees’ request, providing yet another example of pro-fracking propaganda in academic guise.”</p>
<p>The Chancellor's office has yet to respond, though it looks likely that the issue can no longer be ignored by Chancellor Zimpher. </p>
<p>Photo Credit: <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-11733p1.html">Suzanne Tucker</a> | <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-4390306/stock-photo-university-of-wisconsin-bascom-hall.html?src=af9e4c3055d02459410df68467c00e3f-1-0">Shutterstock.com</a></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10826">Satish K. Tripathi</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9718">Shill Gas Study</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10827">UB Coalition for Leading Ethically in Academic Research</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10484">Academic Freedom</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10828">Corporate University</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10646">higher education</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/propaganda">propaganda</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/public-relations">Public Relations</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5086">PR</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10829">SUNY Buffalo Chancellor Nancy Zimpher</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10830">UB Chancellor Nancy Zimpher</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10831">UBuffalo</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9160">UB</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10832">UB President Satish K. Tripathi</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10833">SUNY Buffalo President Satish Tripathi</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10834">UB President Satish Tripathi</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10835">Satish Tripathi</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10836">SUNY Buffalo President Satish K. Tripathi</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10837">UB Clear</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10480">SUNY System</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9238">SUNY Buffalo</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10232">Frackademia</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5133">fracking</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5137">hydraulic fracturing</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7277">shale oil</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5565">shale gas</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8931">unconventional oil</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6344">unconventional gas</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10838">Buffalo</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/911">new york</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10839">James Holstun</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10840">Jim Holstun</a></div></div></div>Fri, 02 Nov 2012 22:03:15 +0000Steve Horn6631 at http://www.desmogblog.com